The Miserable People
by crazymusicalgenius96
Summary: Are you a fan of Les Miserables? Even if you aren't, then you should still check out Phineas and Ferb's totally rad version of it. Rated T for content.
1. Prologue

_"Okay, Sophia, calm down. You can get through this."_

_"I can't! I can't get through this!" Sophia cried into Roxie's shoulder. "I can't read a book with nineteen hundred words. I just can't. I'm going to fail junior English in the fall!"_

_"No, you won't. You're Sophia Flynn. You are capable of anything. Just remember that." Roxie patted Sophia's head and wiped a stray tear from her cheek. "I have a great idea to help you."_

_Sophia tried to pull herself together. She sniffled sadly. "How?"_

_"There's a musical of Les Miserables, right? You like musicals."_

_"I don't think even a musical could improve the source material, Roxie," Sophia said matter-of-factly. _

_Roxie sighed. "This is the second part of my idea. We're going to cast everyone we know as the characters, and make an illustrated book out of it. My art teacher keeps saying I need practice with perspective. What better way to do it than by drawing 1830s France? And then you can use it as a study guide."_

_Sophia had to admit that Roxie's idea was probably the most fun thing to do with the storyline of Les Miz, and then she would have fun pictures to help explain what was happening in the story. _

_Besides, everyone else would probably just watch the movie anyway._

_"Let's do it!"_

_So the two teens set out to cast their imaginary production of Les Miserables. _

_"Well, our dads should be the leads," Sophia stated._

_Roxie shook her head. "Aunt Candace has to be Javert, because Javert is the one obsessed with busting people. My dad can be Thenardier."_

_"My mom is Fantine, right?" Sophia asked. _

_"Yup, that way you can be Cosette and Cameron can be Marius."_

_"Then you should be Eponine, Roxie!" Sophia exclaimed, clapping her hands. _

_Roxie rolled her eyes. "But we said Michael is playing Enjolras! I'd much rather die in his arms than the arms of Cameron Brown."_

_"Who else is gonna play Eponine, Roxie?"_

_She did have a point there._

_Finally, after much deliberation, the cast list was drafted. _

Valjean- Phineas Flynn  
Javert- Candace Johnson  
Fantine- Isabella Flynn  
Cosette- Sophia Flynn  
Thenardier- Ferb Fletcher  
Madame T- Vanessa Fletcher  
Éponine- Roxie Fletcher  
Marius- Cameron Brown  
Enjolras- Michael Rai  
Other Student Guy: Jimmy Van Stomm  
Other Student Guy #2: Kenny Martinez  
Other Student Guy #3: Xavier Johnson  
Other Student Guy #4: Fred Johnson  
Gavroche- Benji Fletcher  
Sailors: Carl Karl & Albert McAllister  
Recurring Constables- Buford Van Stomm & Baljeet Rai  
Recurring Background Men: Francis Monogram, Heinz Doofenshmirtz, Jeremy Johnson, Carl Karl, Albert McAllister, Django Brown, Irving McAllister, Pedro Martinez, the Ballpit Kid, those listed as Other Student Guys  
Recurring Background Women: Fireside Girls (both generations)  
Girl #5: Adyson Brown

_Roxie rubbed her nose. "I think we're good. The recurring background men can play, like, four characters simultaneously."_

_"Shall we begin to write, then?" asked Sophia._

_In response, Roxie set pencil to paper and began writing in her messy scrawl._

**1815, A Prison near Toulon, France**

It was the beginning of another day of brutal punishment. Convict 24601, also known as Phineas Valjean, was chained to his fellow prisoners and shoved off towards a day full of digging in the bleak French countryside. Though he had been there for nineteen years, he never lost hope that someday he would return to the outside world. But the guards easily broke the hope of the others long, long ago, leaving them with only a simple, constant refrain of despair.

"_Look down, look down  
__Don't look 'em in the eye  
__Look down, look down,  
__You're here until you die."_

They arrived at their work place for the day, were unchained, and thrown to the ground with their tools to begin work. Phineas wasn't really sure what the purpose of this was, but he knew that if he didn't do as he was told, it would increase his sentence exponentially.

A man cried out, wiping his brow in the glare. _"The sun is strong, it's hot as hell below."_

The others made a simple reply, making a rhythm with their work. _"Look down, look down, there's twenty years to go."_

Another convict fell to his knees. He was new to the chain gang. _"I've done no wrong! Sweet Jesus, hear my prayer!"_

The others reminded him to get back to work before the guards beat him. _"Look down, look down, sweet Jesus doesn't care."_

A third man, who Phineas knew well, still pined for his lost love. _"I know she'll wait, I know that she'll be true!"_ He looked hopefully at Phineas.

The others in the gang weren't so hopeful. _"Look down, look down, they've all forgotten you."_

Yet another man, one of the oldest on the chain gang, muttered into the sand, as he often did. _"When I get free, you won't see me here for dust!_

A guard threatened to hit a man who was off task, and the old refrain started up again. _"Look down, look down, don't look 'em in the eye."_

"_How long, oh Lord, before you let me die?"_ cried a young man who was obviously wounded, but had been forced to come here anyway.

The convicts eventually fell into their rhythm for the day, and there was little disturbance.

"_Look down, look down,  
__You'll always be a slave  
__Look down, look down,  
__You're standing in your grave."_

Inspector Candace Javert strolled into the work area, swinging her baton menacingly. The guards immediately stood at attention. She gave them a steely glare.

"_Now bring me prisoner 24601."_

Phineas was scared. He'd done nothing bad in several years, by his reckoning.

But Candace brought the best news he could have ever imagined.

"_Your time is up and your parole's begun. You know what that means."_

It was all Phineas could do to not jump in the air and cry out for joy. _"Yes, it means I'm free!"_

"_No!"_ Candace practically shouted. _"It means you get your yellow ticket-of-leave. You are a thief -"_

"_I stole a loaf of bread,"_ Phineas protested.

Candace put her finger on Phineas' chest. _"You robbed a house."_

"_I broke a window pane,"_ Phineas pleaded. He did not want to be reminded of his past. _"My sister's child was close to death...and we were starving..."_

Candace's glare was unwavering. _"You will starve again unless you learn the meaning of the law."_

Phineas would have shouted, if he hadn't realized that doing so would get him a few more years stuck in here. _"I know the meaning of those 19 years. A slave of the law."_

Candace pulled out the ticket-of-leave and read it. _"Five years for what you did, the rest because you tried to run. Yes, 24601."_

"_My name is Phineas Valjean!" _he cried, wanting to be treated as a human being.

Candace smirked and turned Phineas' chin towards her with her baton._ "And I am Candace Javert. Do not forget my name! Do not forget me, 24601."_

Another guard handed Phineas a rough burlap sack containing a coat and the ticket-of-leave. As he was escorted beyond the gates, he watched the other men still trapped inside the fence, still singing the same old song.

"_Look down, look down  
__You'll always be a slave  
__Look down, look down  
__You're standing in your grave."_

The world looked as though it had been painted with thousands of new colors. Phineas breathed in the fresh air as he walked along the dirt road towards the town - how wonderful it smelled! - and marveled at the sights around him.

"_Freedom is mine. The earth is still.  
__I feel the wind. I breathe again.  
__And the sky clears  
__The world is waking."_

He spotted a pool of fresh water, and eagerly sat near it, trying to remove the years of sweat and dirt that had accumulated upon him.

"_Drink from the pool. How clean the taste.  
__Never forget the years, the waste."_

He thought again of Candace, how she had looked down on him as the scum of the earth. No man should have to be subjected to such shame, he thought.

"_Nor forgive them  
__For what they've done.  
__They are the guilty - everyone.  
__The day begins...  
__And now let's see  
__What this new world  
__Will do for me!"_

Closer to the town, he found a farmer who was in need of laborers for his fields. Phineas figured that since he'd been digging for the last nineteen years, he ought to be pretty good at it by this time, and hoed alongside the other workers all day. When dusk began to fall, the workers all lined up to get paid, and Phineas followed their lead. He showed the farmer his ticket-of-leave, as he was legally obligated to do, and was greeted by cold sneers all around him.

The farmer put a few coins into Phineas' hand, with an apologetic look in his eyes. _"You'll have to go, I'll pay you off for the day. Collect your bits and pieces there and be on your way."_

Phineas was angry. He'd worked just as hard as everyone else had! _"You have given me half what the other men get! This handful of tin wouldn't buy my sweat!"_

The man behind him in line wasn't so kind.

"_You broke the law. It's there for people to see! Why should you get the same as honest men like me?"_

Phineas wandered away from the farm at the protest of the other workers, cursing his own naivete.

"_And now I know how freedom feels  
__The jailer always at your heels  
__It is the law!  
__This piece of paper in my hand  
__That makes me cursed throughout the land  
__It is the law!  
__Like a cur  
__I walk the street,  
__The dirt beneath their feet."_

He collapsed on a street corner, shaking with hunger. He hadn't eaten anything since he'd left the prison. Phineas was about to wonder whether he would just die here in the street, wallowing in misery, when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"_Come in, Sir, for you are weary,  
__And the night is cold out there.  
__Though our lives are very humble  
__What we have, we have to share."_

Bishop Monogram, as Phineas later found out the man was called, helped him into the house, gave him some warmer clothes and what he considered a feast fit for a king.

"_He let me eat my fill  
__I had the lion's share..."_

The table was laid with precious pieces of silver. Even a fork was highly valuable, at least in the eyes of Phineas.

"_The silver in my hand  
__Cost twice what I had earned  
__In all those nineteen years -  
__That lifetime of despair  
__And yet he trusted me."_

The Bishop went up to bed, and showed Phineas his room. Though he knew that he probably shouldn't, Phineas went downstairs just to get another glimpse of such wealth.

"_The old fool trusted me -  
__He'd done his bit of good  
__I played the grateful serf  
__And thanked him like I should  
__But when the house was still,  
__I got up in the night.  
__Took the silver  
__Took my flight!"_

He couldn't help himself. He was so desperate for money that he grabbed as much of the silverware as he could and ran into the night. Unfortunately, the constables on patrol snatched him up immediately and searched his satchel. They questioned him about the silver, and Phineas came up with the first thing that he could think of in order to not be sent back to jail. Several people nearby heard the ruckus and came down into the street to see what was happening.

When the bishop came out into the street and saw what had happened, the constables questioned him again.

"_Tell his reverence your story,"_ the bigger, paler one said menacingly.

"_Let us see if he's impressed,"_ the constable who looked like an exile from British India said, in a less menacing manner.

"_You were lodging here last night,"_ the first asked the Bishop.

"_You were the honest Bishop's guest.  
__And then, out of Christian goodness  
__When he learned about your plight,"_ the Indian constable said.

"_You maintain he made a present of this silver?" _the first constable said, shoving the silverware in Phineas' face.

"_That is right."_

Everyone looked at Bishop Monogram in surprise.

"_But my friend, you left so early,  
__Surely something slipped your mind.  
__You forgot I gave these also,  
__Would you leave the best behind?"_

Bishop Monogram held out two beautiful silver candlesticks, obviously quite old and much more valuable than the simple forks.

"_So, Messieurs, you may release him  
__For this man has spoken true  
__I commend you for your duty  
__And God's blessing go with you."_

He made the sign of the cross over the constables and helped Phineas back inside. The people generally dispersed now that the excitement was over.

Phineas knew that Bishop Monogram had lied to save him from returning to jail. But why?

The Bishop gave him a simple answer.

"_But remember this, my brother  
__See in this some higher plan  
__You must use this precious silver  
__To become an honest man  
__By the witness of the martyrs  
__By the Passion and the Blood  
__God has raised you out of darkness  
__I have bought your soul for God!"_

Without another word, the Bishop went back upstairs to return to bed.

Left alone, Phineas pondered just what the Bishop had done for him.

"_What have I done?  
__Sweet Jesus, what have I done?  
__Become a thief in the night,  
__Become a dog on the run  
__And have I fallen so far,  
__And is the hour so late  
__That nothing remains but the cry of my hate,  
__The cries in the dark that nobody hears,  
__Here where I stand at the turning of the years?"_

Could he really forget everything that had happened to him since his initial arrest? Was it possible for him to be able to change?

"_If there's another way to go  
__I missed it twenty long years ago  
__My life was a war that could never be won  
__They gave me a number and murdered Valjean  
__When they chained me and left me for dead  
__Just for stealing a mouthful of bread!"_

He fell to his knees, the generosity he had just received overwhelming him. He'd never had anything so precious in his life. What was he supposed to do in return?

"_One word from him and I'd be back  
__Beneath the lash, upon the rack  
__Instead he offers me my freedom  
__I feel my shame inside me like a knife  
__He told me that I have a soul,  
__How does he know?  
__What spirit comes to move my life?  
__Is there another way to go?"_

The Bishop had said to use the candlesticks to become an honest man. But how was he to do that when his ticket-of-leave marked him forever as a thief?

All at once, Phineas knew what he had to do. He must escape to a new town, change his name, and start over as a completely new person.

"_I am reaching, but I fall  
__And the night is closing in  
__And I stare into the void  
__To the whirlpool of my sin  
__I'll escape now from the world  
__From the world of Jean Valjean  
__Jean Valjean is nothing now  
__Another story must begin!"_

He took out his ticket-of-leave and ripped it into small pieces. A small act of defiance, but one that would surely lead him to greatness.

**A/N: So welcome to The Miserable People, everyone! Inspired by BroadwayFanGirl91's The Fletcher of the Opera, and a random drawing I did of Isabella as Fantine, it's basically Les Miserables with the Phineas and Ferb cast playing the characters. You probably noticed that there's stuff missing, that's because I'm using the MTI Student Edition script, not the full thing, 'cause I know this way better.**

**Sophia and Roxie will be interjecting when they see fit (hint: when Roxie wants to complain about being Eponine). The "illustrated" part that they speak of will be available on deviantART; actually, I put up quite a bit of art for this concept already. Updates on this will probably be sparse, considering I'm in my very own production of Les Miz in real life and our tech week starts on the 16th. =)**


	2. At the End of the Day

_"So what did you think of the prologue?" Roxie asked. _

_Sophia stared at Roxie. "That was only the prologue?"_

_"Shortened, might I add. We are using the School Edition, after all."_

_Sophia sighed. "Let's get cracking, then. So what happens now?"_

_"Well, remember how Phineas swore to change his name and start over as a new man? That's just what he does...as we shall see here in Chapter 2!"_

_Roxie sketched out the rough outline of a large town for Sophia's reference, and wrote the time and place at the top before continuing to write the story._

**1823, A Town called Montreuil-sur-Mer**

Eight years had passed since Phineas' release from prison, and the poor of France were no better off than he had been before prison. The aftermath of the French Revolution had left many penniless, desperate to feed their children and to keep a roof over their heads. They were a bitter crew, hardened by the life they led.

"_At the end of the day you're another day older  
__And that's all you can say for the life of the poor  
__It's a struggle, it's a war  
__And there's nothing that anyone's giving  
__One more day standing about, what is it for?  
__One day less to be living."_

They were forced to beg for the simplest of things: bread, blankets, a coin or two to pay for a scrap of whatever they could find. Those who passed them tried to ignore the cries of the helpless, barely giving them a glance.

"_At the end of the day you're another day colder  
__And the shirt on your back doesn't keep out the chill  
__And the righteous hurry past  
__They don't hear the little ones crying  
__And the winter is coming on fast, ready to kill  
__One day nearer to dying!"_

As rough as life was for them, the poor still had a grain of hope, that someday the cruel kings would be overturned and they could earn a living for themselves.

"_At the end of the day there's another day dawning  
__And the sun in the morning is waiting to rise  
__Like the waves crash on the sand  
__Like a storm that'll break any second  
__There's a hunger in the land  
__There's a reckoning still to be reckoned and  
__There's gonna be hell to pay  
__At the end of the day!"_

The poor often gathered about the factories at the end of the day, hoping that those who were lucky enough to work inside would spare them a coin. One of these factories was a textile factory, owned by a man known as Monsieur Phineas Madeleine. Nobody really knew where he came from, but he was kind-hearted enough, and he was the mayor of the town now.

The foreman of Phineas' factory was carrying the box containing the daily pay for the workers. He grumpily set it down on the table near the door, which he used to pay them, and sat down next to it.

"_At the end of the day you get nothing for nothing  
__Sitting flat on your butt doesn't buy any bread."_

The workers had finished for the day, and began to wander over to the pay station, talking about their problems as they went. Three women huddled together, worried for the fate of their families.

"_There are children back at home,"_ the first woman said. _"And the children have got to be fed."_

"_And you're lucky to be in a job,"_ the second woman commented.

"_And in a bed!"_ added the third.

"_And we're counting our blessings!"_ they all agreed.

First in line to receive her pay was a beautiful, but proud young woman named Isabella. She had lots of attention from many of the men in the town - indeed, most of the other factory workers were quite jealous - but she always turned them down, even when they promised to pay her for her favors. The foreman of the factory was no different from the others, often accosting the poor girl while she was at work. The women in line behind her watched as she struggled to retrieve a letter from the foreman, which was apparently addressed to her.

"_Have you seen how the foreman is fuming today?"_ the blonde one gossiped. _"With his terrible breath and his wandering hands?"_

"_It's because little Isabella won't give him his way,"_ the auburn-haired woman told her matter-of-factly.

A black-haired woman pointed at the scene they were witnessing. _"Take a look at his trousers, you'll see where he stands!"_

"_And the boss, he never knows that the foreman is always in heat,"_ said a woman with brown curly hair.

The auburn-haired woman turned to the others, warning them sarcastically. _"If Isabella doesn't look out, watch how she goes. She'll be out on the street!"_

Isabella finally got her letter, and the line moved more quickly now as women simply took their pay and left.

"_At the end of the day it's another day over  
__With enough in your pocket to last for a week  
__Pay the landlord, pay the shop  
__Keep on grafting as long as you're able  
__Keep on grafting till you drop  
__Or it's back to the crumbs off the table  
__You've got to pay your way  
__At the end of the day!"_

Out of all the women in the factory, there was one who was particularly jealous of Isabella's beauty, especially the fact that she received the most attention from the blond, hunky foreman. Her name was Adyson, and she often made it her mission to make Isabella's life miserable.

So when she spotted Isabella reading her letter, growing increasingly worried, she decided that this was a perfect opportunity to harass her.

"_And what have we here, little innocent sister?"_ she said, smirking at Isabella as she walked over to her. _"Come on, Isabella, let's have all the news!"_

Adyson grabbed the letter from Isabella and read it aloud so the other gossips could hear its contents.

" '_Dear Isabella, you must send us more money  
__Your child needs a doctor  
__There's no time to lose...' "_

The other women laughed at this, whispering to each other intently. Embarrassed, Isabella tried to get her letter back from the spiteful Adyson.

"_Give that letter to me  
__It is none of your business  
__With a husband at home  
__And a bit on the side!  
__Is there anyone here  
__Who can swear before God  
__She has nothing to fear?  
__She has nothing to hide?"_

In trying to get the letter back, Isabella lunged for Adyson, tripping over her own feet, falling down, and knocking Adyson over in the process. Adyson fell on top of her, and the two women were soon scrambling and fighting madly on the ground, trying to prevent the other from getting the letter. The others began egging them on, happy to see such a show. It caused quite a riot, and soon the owner of the factory was called to put a stop to it.

Phineas strolled into the room quickly, but importantly, and all of the other women immediately stopped shouting and looked to him for instructions.

"_Will someone tear these two apart?  
__What is this fighting all about?  
__This is a factory, not a circus!"_

Isabella and Adyson finally stopped and stood, dirty and ashamed. Adyson had ended up with the letter, but she threw it at Isabella's feet.

"_Now come on ladies, settle down  
__I run a business of repute  
__I am the Mayor of this town."_

He turned to the foreman, shaking his hand solemnly.

"_I look to you to sort this out,  
__And be as patient as you can."_

Phineas began to leave the factory, and Isabella desperately reached out to him to show him the letter, but he ignored her and walked out the door.

"_Now someone say how this began!"_ the foreman said imposingly.

Adyson turned toward Isabella and pointed at her accusingly.

"_At the end of the day  
__She's the one who began it!"_

Isabella gasped. That certainly wasn't the truth!

"_There's a kid that she's hiding  
__In some little town  
__There's a man she has to pay  
__You can guess how she picks up the extra  
__You can bet she's earning her keep  
__Sleeping around  
__And the boss wouldn't like it!"_

Adyson winked at the foreman, and Isabella felt that she simply had to interject her side of the story, or risk losing her job. She held out the letter for the foreman to read.

"_Yes it's true there's a child  
__And the child is my daughter  
__And her father abandoned us,  
__Leaving us flat  
__Now she lives with an innkeeper man  
__And his wife  
__And I pay for the child  
__What's the matter with that?"_

Isabella couldn't believe what she heard the other women saying in response.

"_At the end of the day  
__She'll be nothing but trouble  
__And there's trouble for all  
__When there's trouble for one!  
__While we're earning our daily bread  
__She's the one with her hands in the butter  
Y__ou must send the slut away  
__Or we're all gonna end in the gutter  
__And it's us who'll have to pay  
__At the end of the day!"_

Isabella thought that they might have had some decency, but here they were, demanding her dismissal! She'd done nothing to them, not a thing. Even the fight had been in self-defense.

The foreman was no kinder than her coworkers.

"_I might have known the bitch could bite  
__I might have known the cat had claws  
__I might have guessed your little secret..."_

He stroked Isabella's cheek, and it took all of her strength not to flinch.

"_Ah, yes, the virtuous Isabella...  
__Who keeps herself so pure and clean  
__You'd be the cause, I had no doubt  
__Of any trouble hereabout  
__You play a virgin in the light  
__But need no urgin' in the night."_

"_She's been laughing at you while she's having her men!"_ Adyson yelled.

"_She'll be nothing but trouble again and again!"_ the other women echoed.

Adyson pointed at Isabella again. _"You must sack her today!"_

"_Sack the girl today!"_ cried every woman in the factory.

The foreman looked Isabella right in the eyes. _"Right, my girl."_ He then shoved her out the door. _"On your way!"_

As Isabella ran away from the horrible factory, she swore she could hear the others celebrating.

oOoOoOo

"_Is that even legal?" Sophia asked._

"_Back then it was," Roxie replied, erasing a mark she'd made on her illustration of Isabella. "No such thing as labor laws."_

"_That's horrible!" cried Sophia, reading the words over again in disbelief. "And is my character really sick?"_

_Roxie smirked. "No spoilers. We'll get to you in a bit."_

* * *

__**A/N: Thanks to BroadwayFanGirl91, we now have fun dividey lines! Yay! So here's chapter two. "At the End of the Day". Fun fact: I sing the line "And the boss, he never knows that the foreman is always in heat." XD But poor Isabella! Why must the French be so judgmental? First Phineas, now Isabella...**


	3. I Dreamed A Dream

Outside the factory, Isabella looked at the setting sun in disbelief. Without a job, she had no way of providing for her daughter, Sophia. She slowly took off her factory-issued mob cap and apron, leaving them in the dirt next to her, and held the letter to her chest, remembering Sophia's father and all of the beautiful times she had with him.

"_There was a time when men were kind  
__When their voices were soft  
__And their words inviting  
__There was a time when love was blind  
__And the world was a song  
__And the song was exciting  
__There was a time...  
__Then it all went wrong."_

She sat on the ground, reading over the letter again, and wishing dearly for those good times to return to her.

"_I dreamed a dream in time gone by  
__When hope was high  
__And life worth living  
__I dreamed that love would never die  
__I dreamed that God would be forgiving  
__Then I was young and unafraid  
__And dreams were made and used and wasted  
__There was no ransom to be paid  
__No song unsung, no wine untasted..."_

Isabella knew that her hopes were worth very little now, if anything. All she could pray for was for the survival of her poor Sophia.

"_But the tigers come at night  
__With their voices soft as thunder  
__As they tear your hope apart  
__As they turn your dream to shame!"_

The betrayal of her lover hit her once again, just as hard as it had for the past eight years. How he had left as soon as Sophia was born, not wanting to take care of a child, simply wanting to move on to a new town with a new girl, one who wasn't bogged down with a baby.

"_He slept a summer by my side  
__He filled my days with endless wonder  
__He took my childhood in his stride  
__But he was gone when autumn came  
__And still I dream he'll come to me  
__That we will live the years together  
__But there are dreams that cannot be  
__And there are storms we cannot weather  
__I had a dream my life would be  
__So different from this hell I'm living  
__So different now from what it seemed  
__Now life has killed the dream I dreamed."_

Isabella wept bitterly into the dirt for a while, then realizing that the sun had set, knew that she must try to seek another form of employment. Sophia must be saved. But how? There was no work for a woman with a child to support, and surely that secret would be spread around the town in no time.

She knew that there was a sure-fire way to make money available to her, but she didn't want to resort to it yet.

oOoOoOo

_Sophia looked up at Roxie. "Is that sure-fire way prostitution?"_

"_Well, I was going to sugar-coat it a bit more than that, but you just had to go right out and say it. Yes. That's the sure-fire way," Roxie said flatly._

"_My poor mommy," Sophia said, with a bit of a tear in her eye. "Why is the school having us read this?"_

"_It's a classic, Sophia."_

* * *

**A/N: Sorry this chapter is super short, it's just that "I Dreamed A Dream" gets its own number in the MTI system. Most of the other songs are combined with more recit-type stuff, but this one kind of just hangs out here. That's why I waited to publish this one until I had more stuff to publish with it. **


	4. The Docks

_Sophia tightened her pigtails. "So how long does it take for my mom to resort to the sure-fire way?"_

"_Oh, it'll only take until halfway through this scene. But she doesn't have to for long, so don't worry." Roxie drew some boats and a rough outline of a cartoony dock. "There. The lovely ladies hang out in the docks."_

_Before Sophia could even ask, she added, "And yes, that's a euphemism."_

**1823, The Docks in Montreuil-sur-Mer**

Isabella wandered out to the seediest part of town. The black market was easy to sell to and buy from around here, and while it scared her, she knew that she had to sell some of her possessions in order to keep her and her daughter alive.

As she passed by the docks, she saw three drunken sailors leaving their ships, with name tags clearly labeled Carl, Irving, and Albert.

"_I smell women, smell 'em in the air. Think I'll drop my anchor in that harbor over there,"_ the sailor named Carl said, pointing over at the lovely ladies for sale.

"_Lovely ladies, smell 'em through the smoke. Seven days at sea can make you hungry for a poke,"_ agreed the sailor called Irving.

The sailor named Albert elbowed his companions. _"Even stokers need a little stoke!"_

Isabella looked over at what they intended to buy, and hoped that she wouldn't soon be forced to join their numbers.

The girls sat on barrels, advertising themselves and each other, wearing very little clothing so as to inform the customer exactly what he was buying.

"_Lovely ladies  
__Waiting for a bite  
__Waiting for the customers  
__Who only come at night  
__Lovely ladies  
__Ready for the call  
__Standing up or lying down  
__Or any way at all  
__Bargain prices up against the wall!"_

As Isabella stared at the lovely ladies, an old woman came up to her, with a malicious glint in her eye.

"_What pretty hair! What pretty locks you've got there. What luck you've got. It's worth a centime, my dear..." _The old woman grabbed a chunk of it. _"I'll take the lot!"_

Frightened, Isabella cried out. _"Don't touch me! Leave me alone!"_

"_Let's make a price. I'll give you all of ten francs. Just think of that..." _the old woman said, still clinging to her.

"_It pays a debt..."_ said Isabella thoughtfully.

"_Just think of that!"_ the old woman repeated, beckoning to her.

Though Isabella hadn't been intending to sell her hair, she knew that ten francs was more money than she could hope to make from anything else she had. _"What can I do? It pays a debt. Ten francs may save my poor Sophia!"_

As the old woman took Isabella into an alleyway to cut her hair, she could hear the sailors comparing their lovely ladies.

"_Lovely lady  
__Fastest on the street  
__Wasn't there three minutes  
__She was back upon her feet  
__Lovely ladies  
__Whatcha waiting for?  
__Doesn't take a lot of savvy  
__Just to be a whore  
__Come on lady  
__What's a lady for?"_

She reemerged, with newly shorn hair, and tried begging other passers-by to take something she owned, while still watching the lovely ladies from afar. She could tell that the lovely ladies had noticed her, for their pimp was now looking towards her as well.

"_Give me the dirt, who's that bit over there?"_ she heard him ask.

"_A bit of skirt. She's the one sold her hair,"_ a black-haired lovely lady told the pimp.

"_She's got a kid, sends her all that she can,"_ said a brunette lovely lady, who looked sort of like Adyson.

"_I might have known, there is always some man,"_ the pimp replied knowingly. He came over to Isabella and pulled her towards the ladies for sale. _"Lovely lady, come along and join us! Lovely lady!"_

But Isabella resisted, turning away in shame. She couldn't yet resign herself to this fate.

One of the lovely ladies, the first one whom Isabella had seen speaking to the pimp, came over to her, laying a kind hand on her shoulder. _"Come on, dearie, why all the fuss? You're no grander than the rest of us. Life has dropped you at the bottom of the heap. Join your sisters..."_

"_Make money in your sleep!"_ cried the other one who had spoken to the pimp, the girl who looked like Adyson. What a cruel irony that was.

A sailor walked by and beckoned to Isabella. She decided, right then and there, that it no longer mattered that she save her dignity. All that mattered now was that she saved her daughter.

Isabella stepped towards him and smiled.

"_That's right dearie, let him have the lot,"_ the black-haired lady encouraged.

"_That's right dearie, show him what you've got!"_ the Adyson look-alike added.

After a few encounters, Isabella was firmly in the ranks of the lovely ladies, and getting quite a bit of business since she was still very beautiful, even in the ragged, tired state she was currently in. She didn't care anymore. The only thing she could focus on was earning enough for Sophia.

The other ladies were in situations that were just as precarious, if not more so. The lovely ladies were bound together in a sort of sisterhood, Isabella realized, and they had welcomed her in. They were all there to fight the same fight in this world, and so what if this was their profession? Life had driven them to it. They each had the same underlying thoughts as they tried to earn the lust of one more customer.

"_Old men, young men, take 'em as they come  
__Harbor rats and alley cats and every kind of scum  
__Poor men, rich men, leaders of the land  
__See them with their trousers off they're never quite as grand  
__All it takes is money in your hand!"_

It was a sad way of living, even worse than that of the beggars around the factories. Each one of them still longed for a glimmer of true love and compassion, from somebody who could help them out.

"_Lovely ladies  
__Going for a song  
__Got a lot of callers  
__But they never stay for long..."_

Isabella called out to a tall man passing by, wearing a Captain's uniform. He might pay more than the average sailor...

"_Come on, Captain,__you can wear your shoes  
__Don't it make a change  
__To have a girl who can't refuse?"_

As she went off into another dark corner to do her work, she thought about how far she had fallen into this twisted abyss. But she suffered it gladly for her daughter.

"_Easy money  
__Lying on a bed  
__Just as well they never see  
__The hate that's in your head  
__Don't they know they're making love  
__To one already dead!"_

After giving the pimp his share of the pay, Isabella returned to her post on her barrel of salt underneath a lamppost, and sat in wait for the next customer. An older, cunning-looking gentleman made his way towards her with a walking stick in his hand. She recognized this man...his name was Django, and he was well-known in the town for being a drunkard and beating his wife.

"_Here's something new. I think I'll give it a try."_

Isabella groaned inwardly. He was coming right for her. She didn't exactly want to be beaten tonight, seeing as she was already feeling rather ill from general overwork.

"_Come closer, you! I like to see what I buy," _Django said, sidling up to her and grabbing onto her wrist._"The usual price, for just one slice of your pie..."_

Isabella struggled to free herself from his grasp. _"I don't want you. No, no, m'sieur, let me go!"_

Django simply grabbed her other wrist. _"Is this a trick? I won't pay more!"_

"_No, not at all,"_ Isabella yelped in fright.

"_You've got some nerve, you little whore, you've got some gall!"_ Django said, beginning to twist her arm.

With no other way to free herself, Isabella resorted to biting his hand. He immediately let her go, and she fell back onto her barrel.

"_I'll kill you, you bastard, try any of that!"_ Isabella cried savagely, trying desperately to protect herself before Django started to beat her with his walking stick. _"Even a whore who has gone to the bad won't be had by a rat!"_

He landed one blow on her back, knocking the air out of her and sending her sprawling to the ground, but soon the police arrived, and the docks turned into chaos.

Who were the officers on duty? None other than Inspector Candace Javert, and those same two constables from that fateful night long ago, who had mysteriously been transferred from Toulon. Isabella saw the police officers go straight to Django. Of course they would. Even a wife-beater was better than a lovely lady, in the eyes of the keepers of the law. Candace struck fear into the hearts of every townsperson, especially the colorful folk that populated this area, and tonight she was no different.

"_Tell me quickly, what's the story  
__Who saw what and why and where?  
__Let him give a full description  
__Let him answer to Candace!  
__In this nest of whores and vipers  
__Let one speak who saw it all  
__Who laid hands on this good man here?  
__What's the substance of this brawl?"_

Django leaned heavily on his walking stick, putting on an obvious show for the police.

"_Candace, would you believe it, I was crossing from the park, when this prostitute attacked me..."_ He looked accusingly over at Isabella, then pointed sadly to the tiny bite mark she had left. _"You can see she left her mark!"_

Before Isabella could figure out what was happening, the constables had dragged her out into the open and put her on her knees in front of the Inspector. She saw Candace nod and shake Django's hand.

"_She will answer for her actions  
__When you make a full report  
__You may rest assured, M'sieur,  
__That she will answer to the court."_

But she had worked so hard just to earn the little she had! Jail would mean no money at all, and without money, who knew what would happen to Sophia?

"_There's a child who sorely needs me! Please, M'sieur, she's but that high,"_ Isabella pleaded, clasping her hands at Candace's feet. _"Holy God, is there no mercy? If I go to jail she'll die!"_

Candace looked down at her, and Isabella felt how she looked: the scum of the street. Isabella knew she would get no better than Candace's next response, no matter who the police officer was. They didn't care about a poor little child, dying of who-knew-what.

"_I have heard such protestations  
__Every day for twenty years  
__Let's have no more explanations  
__Save your breath and save your tears_

'_Honest work, just reward,  
__That's the way to please the Lord.' "_

The constables began to tie her hands behind her back, when suddenly, the Mayor burst into the scene. Isabella had no idea why he was here, nor what he intended to do, but she knew that he was certainly a kinder man than Django, and therefore could probably be trusted in this situation.

"_A moment of your time, Candace, I do believe this woman's tale,"_ he said, putting a hand on the Inspector's shoulder.

Had heaven opened above her? He meant to save her! There was hope after all!

"_But, M'sieur Mayor..."_ Candace protested, looking confused.

"_You've done your duty, let her be. She needs a doctor, not a jail!"_ the Mayor continued.

Candace shook her head. _"But, M'sieur Mayor!"_

"_Can this be?"_ Isabella cried, once again on her knees.

"_Where will she end - this child without a friend?"_ he said, looking her in the eyes.

Even though she was absolutely exhausted, Isabella could see that he recognized her. Hopefully he remembered that she had once been his employee.

He knelt down to her level, and took her hand. With his answer, Isabella knew that he remembered exactly who she was, but didn't want to admit it. _"I've seen your face before. Show me some way to help you. How have you come to grief in a place such as this?"_

Isabella was nearly in tears. _"M'sieur, don't mock me now, I pray. It's hard enough, I've lost my pride. You let your foreman send me away! Yes, you were there, and turned aside..."_

She took his other hand and squeezed both of them, trying to convince him of her innocence. _"I never did no wrong!"_

"_Is it true, what I've done?"_ she heard him mutter.

"_My daughter's close to dying..."_ Isabella begged.

The Mayor looked up to the sky. _"To an innocent soul?"_

Isabella looked up at the sky with him. _"If there's a God above..."_

"_Had I only known then..."_ he said, returning his gaze to her.

Isabella looked him straight in the eye, pleading with him to help her somehow. _"He'd let me die instead."_

The Mayor stood, and told the constables something Isabella could not hear. She was barely staying conscious...it _had_ been a rather trying day.

What he said to Inspector Candace, though, Isabella heard.

"_In His name, my task has just begun. I will see it done!"_ he cried, as the constables picked her up gently and started to carry her back into the better part of town.

"_But M'sieur Mayor!"_ she heard Candace say again.

"_I will see it done!"_ the Mayor said, apparently ignoring her.

"_But M'sieur Mayor!" _Candace exclaimed, trying to capture the Mayor's attention

"_I will see it done!"_ the Mayor cried, and then everyone knew that the subject was closed.

Isabella knew that she and Sophia would be safe now. The last thing she heard before she fell asleep in the constable's arms were voices in the distance.

"Look out! It's a runaway cart!"

oOoOoOo

_"Well, I need a bathroom break," Roxie said unceremoniously, getting up from the table and stretching._

_"But what about the runaway cart?" Sophia pleaded as her cousin wandered off._

_Roxie laughed. "Hold your horses, I'll be right back."_

_"Does it kill anyone?" Sophia asked. "I know there's a lot of dying in this show...so..." Sophia trailed off, looking back down at the beginnings of the book._

_"More spoilers! Geez, Sophia, patience is a virtue!"_

_Sophia read over the section with Django again. "I think we've officially ruined any innocence and goodness our parents' friends may have had. And when I say parents' friends I mean my boyfriend's dad, Roxie. Why'd we make him...Bamatabois?" she asked, struggling with the long French name._

_Roxie sighed from the bathroom. "It was convenient, okay? Sorry, I now realize how awkward that is..."_

"_You got that right."_

* * *

**A/N: This chapter was really hard for me to write. And I mean really hard. Especially since it's from only Isabella's POV, as opposed to what I did with At the End of the Day, which was more over-arching. Keeping the lovely ladies within the boundaries of the "T" rating was also a challenge for me...good thing there's a wealth of euphemisms. **

**An explanation for the sailors being Carl, Irving, and Albert, the three nerdiest guys on Phineas and Ferb: MTI sends a resource recording along with the scripts for their shows, which is basically a CD that MTI records of some random assortment of college students who need voiceover experience singing the show. (I don't say that in a mean way at all, in fact I intend to join their numbers before too long.) So anyway, the guys who play the sailors have an uncanny vocal resemblance to our three nerdy friends. Carl's is the most similar...it's scary how much the kid sounds like Carl.**

**Also, the pimp sounds like he's 12. XD**


	5. Cart Crash

_Sophia picked up a pencil and started doodling. "So why did my dad save my mom? I mean, he just kind of appeared at the docks. Poof! Magic!"_

_Roxie reemerged from the bathroom. "He was just kind of there and he recognized her from before. I don't know why he was there in the first place." She sat back down. "I should probably tell you now, I'm going to switch points of view a lot. Because, well, people die, and then you can't really use their POV anymore."_

"_I guess that's true," Sophia said, sighing and erasing what she had drawn. "So now let's hear about the runaway cart!"_

oOoOoOo

The runaway cart had appeared out of nowhere, from some hidden alleyway that Phineas had not noticed before, but he had no time to think. All he could think about was that his townspeople were safe. He shielded those that were already in the square as several more ran by, being chased by the cart.

The cart finally crashed into a nearby inn. Most of those people escaped; however, the one man who was caught in the wreckage was an old man named Doofenshmirtz, who obviously owned the cart. Pinned beneath one of the wheels, he was slowly suffocating underneath the weight of the monster.

Poor man, thought Phineas. _"Is there anyone here who will rescue the man?"_ he asked those around him. Seeing no response, he took off his hat and coat, and stepped forward to try to aid Doofenshmirtz.

The people around him protested as he approached the cart.

"_Don't go near him, Mr. Mayor!"_

"_The load is heavy as hell!"_

"_The old man's a goner for sure!"_

"_It'll kill you as well."_

But Phineas paid no attention to them. He decided that he had to try to lift the wheel off of Monsieur Doofenshmirtz. It took every ounce of strength in his body, but he was able to lift it just long enough for another man to help Doofenshmirtz out from under the cart. Once Phineas was assured he was safe, he let the cart down with a grunt.

Doofenshmirtz looked at him gratefully as he, like Fantine, was carried towards the hospital. _"M'sieur le Mayor, I have no words! You come from God, you are a saint..."_

Phineas donned his hat and coat once more, and the people went along on their merry way, gossiping about their unusually strong mayor. Soon, only he and Candace remained in the square, the latter staring at him uncomfortably.

"_Can this be true?  
__I don't believe what I see!  
__A man your age  
__To be as strong as you are!  
__A mem'ry stirs..."_

Candace, deep in thought, pointed her baton at him.

"_You make me think of a man  
__From years ago  
__A man who broke his parole  
__He disappeared..."_

Looking startled, Candace quickly apologized to him.

"_Forgive me, Sir,  
__I would not dare!"_

Phineas had figured that she might guess his true identity eventually. He was perfectly aware of the consequences.

"_Say what you must  
__Don't leave it there..."_

Candace took a deep breath and began her story.

"_I have only known one other  
__Who can do what you have done  
__He's a convict from the chain gang  
__He's been ten years on the run  
__But he couldn't run forever  
__We have found his hideaway  
__And he's just been re-arrested  
__And he comes to court today."_

Candace smiled as she recounted the last part of the tale.

"_Well, of course he now denies it  
__You'd expect that of a 'con'  
__But he couldn't run forever - "_

She gave Phineas a long, pointed look.

"_No, not even Phineas Valjean!"_

Candace left the square with a knowing smile, swinging her baton as she always had, and leaving Phineas utterly alone in his indecision.

He paced back and forth, unable to do anything else but come to grips with one fact: some other man was taking his place in court in the morning.

"_He thought that man was me  
__He knew it at a glance  
__That stranger he has found  
__This man could be my chance!"_

But Phineas knew it would be wrong to let an innocent man try to fight against a whole courtroom of witnesses, who would claim to know him, but really just wanted to see a man put in jail. He knew there was one key to saving him, but he didn't want to take the risk of jail again himself.

"_Why should I save his hide?  
__Why should I right this wrong  
__When I have come so far  
__And struggled for so long?  
__If I speak, I am condemned.  
__If I stay silent, I am damned!"_

He tried to reason his way out of it. Phineas figured that he was a very important person, surely he was responsible for the freedom of everyone in the town, not just one man. He remembered his factory...

"_I am the master of hundreds of workers.  
__They all look to me.  
__How can I abandon them?  
__How will they live  
__If I am not free?  
__If I speak, they are condemned.  
__If I stay silent, I am damned!"_

Phineas figured he was doing no good just pacing in the empty square near the docks, so he began to trek towards his home. As he walked through the quiet streets of Mounteuil-sur-Mer, he ruminated on the actions that he was morally obligated to commit. But what was morality, anyway?

"_Who am I?  
__Can I condemn this man to slavery  
__Pretend I do not feel his agony  
__This innocent who bears my face  
__Who goes to judgement in my place..."_

Phineas decided that he couldn't condemn the man to a fate that would surely kill him. But still he hesitated, for he didn't want to let go of the comforts he'd grown used to over the past eight years. Even his alias had become commonplace to him.

"_Who am I?  
__Can I conceal myself for evermore?  
__Pretend I'm not the man I was before?  
__And must my name until I die  
__Be no more than an alibi?"_

But he secretly desired to be called by his true name, to not have to hide anymore.

"_Must I lie?  
__How can I ever face my fellow men?  
__How can I ever face myself again?  
__My soul belongs to God, I know  
__I made that bargain long ago  
__He gave me hope when hope was gone  
__He gave me strength to journey on  
__Who am I? Who am I?"_

He knew now what he had to do.

"_I am Phineas Valjean!"_ he proclaimed loudly in his bedroom.

The next morning, he burst into the courtroom just as the innocent man was being declared guilty. He held up his hand to stop the trial, then turned to face Candace, who was sitting next to the judge.

"_And so Candace, you see it's true  
__That man bears no more guilt than you!  
__Who am I?  
__24601!"_

Phineas ripped his shirt open, to show the prisoner's tattoo clearly emblazoned on his chest, then ran from the courtroom as Candace chased after him in hot pursuit.

That had been his plan: confess to save the innocent man, then run to save himself.

* * *

**A/N: Here you see the philosophical ramblings of an IB student. Oh, ethics.**

**But I'm back! Hooray! My Les Miz show closed yesterday...not hooray. Sadface. I've actually written most of the first act now...I just have to do Master of the House, the Beggars scene with Gavroche, and the whole Stars-ABC Cafe-People's Song sequence. Act two...is a different story. ;D**


	6. Fantine's Death

Phineas found refuge in the hospital, where news had not yet been spread of his near-arrest. Three days had passed since the scene in the courtroom, and Phineas was still there, watching over the two people he had rescued, Monsieur Doofenshmirtz and Isabella.

Phineas sat with Doofenshmirtz, who was actually quite animated despite his injury, and improving rapidly in health. He listened patiently as Doofenshmirtz babbled about his son, who lived in Paris as a gardener in a convent, while occasionally glancing down to the other end of the room, where Isabella lay in a much more critical condition. The nurses had told him that the poor woman didn't have much time left, and her daughter would most likely be sent to an orphanage. He could hear her talking to herself senselessly, calling to her daughter even though she was not there.

"_Sophia, it's turned so cold  
__Sophia, it's past your bedtime  
__You've played the day away  
__And soon it will be night."_

Phineas watched as Isabella sat up, with some difficulty, and reach out into thin air towards a girl that only she could see. With a mother's love emanating from her, Phineas had to admire her strength.

"_Come to me, Sophia, the light is fading  
__Don't you see the evening star appearing?  
__Come to me, and rest against my shoulder  
__How fast the minutes fly away and every minute colder..."_

He couldn't watch passively any longer. Phineas knew he had to do something to ease her burden.

Phineas approached Isabella, holding his hat in his hands, and sat at her bedside. Behind him, he heard the nurse take Doofenshmirtz out of the room for a little walk.

"_Oh, Isabella, our time is running out  
__But Isabella, I swear this on my life..."_

She seemed delighted to see him, and eagerly pointed to where she had seen her daughter before. _"Look, M'sieur, where all the children play!"_

Phineas patted her shoulder. _"Be at peace, be at peace evermore."_

"_My Sophia..."_ said Isabella suddenly, who seemed to suddenly understand why Phineas had come.

"_Shall live in my protection,"_ Phineas promised.

Isabella motioned to her visions again. _"Take her now."_

Phineas nodded, trying to placate the poor woman. _"Your child will want for nothing."_

Isabella smiled at him. _"Good M'sieur, you come from God in Heaven!"_

Phineas kindly smiled back. _"And none shall ever harm Sophia as long as I am living."_

"_Take my hand. The night grows ever colder," _Isabella said, suddenly clinging to Phineas.

"_Then I will keep you warm,"_ Phineas said, feeling the life beginning to slip out of her already.

Isabella pleaded with him. _"Take my child. I give her to your keeping."_

Phineas hugged her. _"Take shelter from the storm!"_

Isabella pulled herself out of Phineas' arms to look him in the eye.

"_For God's sake, please stay till I am sleeping. And tell Sophia I love her, and I'll see her when I wake..."_

She died with a smile, her last wish having been granted.

Behind him, Phineas heard the slow, sure click of Candace's boots on the floor as she entered the room.

"_Valjean, at last,  
__We see each other plain  
_'_M'sieur le Mayor,'  
__You'll wear a different chain!"_

Phineas realized he really was in a predicament. Not only was he concerned about himself, he now had to seek out a child and keep her safe, too.

"_Before you say another word, Candace  
__Before you chain me up like a slave again  
__Listen to me! There is something I must do.  
__This woman leaves behind a suffering child.  
__There is none but me who can intercede,  
__In Mercy's name, three days are all I need."_

Candace looked dubious, so he tried to reassure her.

"_Then I'll return, I pledge my word.  
__Then I'll return..."_

Candace laughed and swung her baton, pacing in front of him.

"_You must think me mad!  
__I've hunted you across the years  
__A man like you can never change  
__A man such as you."_

In eerily perfect counterpoint, Phineas and Candace circled around the hospital room, each waiting for the other to make a move.

Phineas was simply trying to convince Candace that he really would come back. He had known that if he was caught, he would have to make a decision whether to run.

"_Believe of me what you will  
__There is a duty that I'm sworn to do  
__You know nothing of my life  
__All I did was steal some bread  
__You know nothing of the world  
__You would sooner see me dead  
__But not before I see this justice __done  
__I am warning you, Candace  
__I'm a stronger man by far  
__There is power in me yet  
__My race is not yet run  
__I am warning you, Candace!  
__There is nothing I won't do  
__If I have to kill you here  
__I'll do what must be done!"_

He saw that Candace didn't believe a word he was saying. He wasn't sure he believed it yet himself. But the glint in her eyes was enough to keep him talking.

Candace spat out retorts as he pleaded, circling like a buzzard approaching a rotting corpse.

"_Men like me can never change  
__Men like you can never change  
__No, __24601...  
__My duty's to the law - you have no rights  
__Come with me 24601  
__Now the wheel has turned around  
__Phineas Valjean is nothing now  
__Dare you talk to me of crime  
__And the price you had to pay  
__Every man is born in sin  
__Every man must choose his way  
__You know nothing of Candace  
__I was born inside a jail  
__I was born with scum like you  
__I am from the gutter too!"_

Finally, Phineas was close enough to a chair to break off the back and threaten her with it. For the first time since she had entered the room, Candace stepped back in fear.

Phineas didn't want to hurt her with it. He didn't want to hurt anyone anymore.

Perhaps a child would be good for him.

In a final act of nonviolence, he knelt at the body of Isabella, reassuring her that her daughter would be safe.

"_And this I swear to you tonight..."_

Behind him, Candace spoke quietly, but with absolute authority. _"There is no place for you to hide."_

Phineas didn't care what she was telling him, he knew that he and Sophia would survive somehow. _"Your child will live within my care."_

"_Wherever you may hide away..."_ Candace continued.

"_And I will raise her to the light!"_ Phineas swore proudly, clutching her cold hand.

The mayor and the policeman had the same thought as Candace advanced, ready to attack.

"_I swear to you, I will be there!"_

But Phineas had sensed her approach, and whipped around, clipping her chin with the chair back. She fell, and struggled to pull him down, too, but she hit her head on the bedside table and fell unconscious.

Suddenly terrified, Phineas rose, and saw the grim scene. He ran out of the hospital, with only Isabella's letter as a clue as to where he should go next: the inn of the Thenardiers.

oOoOoOo

_Roxie looked pointedly at Sophia. "Doing okay? I mean, we did just kill off Aunt Isabella."_

"_I'm fine," Sophia said tersely. _

"_You know what I'm going to do? We're going to keep a body count on the side of our paper here. That way you can keep track of who's dead."_

_Neatly, Roxie wrote "Body Count = 1" next to the sentence where Isabella had died._

"_She was ded," Sophia commented, quoting a popular viral video._

_Roxie sighed. "Indeed. Well, let's press on. We get to go meet you now!"_

* * *

**A/N: Seriously, I don't know what's happening with the document editor. It's-a-makin' me crazy!**

**So here is the Confrontation. It's actually not in the School Edition (the counterpart bit, that is...the rest of it is) but we added it back in just because my boyfriend and my best friend needed an excuse to let out their anger at each other onstage.**

**But really. =D**


	7. Little Cosette

"_Okay, so now we're going to change place, but not time," Roxie said, beginning to scribble out a tall wooden structure. "This is the inn that I was talking about earlier. I don't really know what inns looked like in 1823, and I don't have time to look up a reference, so we'll stick with this."_

_Roxie then began to draw Sophia's outline, and Sophia stopped her."Wait, before we start to draw me...maybe I should have two hands. You know, 'cause if I only had one the Thenardiers probably would have thrown me out as a baby because I'd be useless," Sophia commented, playing with her little fingers._

_Roxie shrugged and erased Sophia's little hand that was supporting a broom, instead giving her a set of fingers._

_At the top of the paper, she wrote in the usual manner:_

**1823, The Thenardiers' Inn, Montfermeil**

Miles away from her mother, a young girl held a broom that was much too big for her to carry, sweeping as well as she could with it. She feared the wrath of her master and mistress, mostly the latter, and knew that she must clean the floor of the tavern or a beating could be in store.

This young girl was Isabella's daughter: Sophia. She wasn't sick in the least, and even if she were, the Thenardiers would have forced her to work anyway.

Sophia set the broom against a table for a second, rubbing her arms to make them stop hurting, and thought about her favorite dream. It cheered her up at times like this.

"_There is a castle on a cloud,  
__I like to go there in my sleep,  
__Aren't any floors for me to sweep,  
__Not in my castle on a cloud.  
__There is a room that's full of toys,  
__There are a hundred boys and girls,  
__Nobody shouts or talks too loud,  
__Not in my castle on a cloud."_

Sophia picked up the broom again and thought about the mysterious lady that sometimes appeared in her castle, and had appeared very frequently as of late. She had shiny black hair and arms that could hold her forever.

"_There is a lady all in white,  
__Holds me and sings a lullaby,  
__She's nice to see and she's soft to touch,  
__She says 'Sophia, I love you very much...' "_

The white lady was her favorite part of the castle.

"_I know a place where no one's lost,  
__I know a place where no one cries,  
__Crying at all is not allowed,  
__Not in my castle on a cloud."_

In her dreaming, Sophia hadn't noticed that Madame Vanessa Thenardier had come into the tavern behind her. Vanessa yelled out in her rough sort of way, and Sophia cowered at the sound of her voice.

"_Now look who's here  
__The little madam herself!  
__Pretending once again she's been 'so awfully good,'  
__Better not let me catch you slacking  
__Better not catch my eye!  
__Ten rotten francs your mother sends me  
__What is that going to buy?"_

Sophia turned to look at Madame Vanessa, and quickly turned away as she barked out an order.

"_Now take that pail  
__My little 'Mademoiselle'  
__And go and draw some water from the well!"_

Drawing water? But it was already dark! Sighing, Sophia set the broom down and took the heavy wooden pail, carrying it toward the door. She set it down, hoping that she could ask to do it in the morning.

Madame Vanessa moaned as she lit the lamps in the tavern. _"We should never have taken you in in the first place, how stupid the things that we do. Like mother, like daughter, the scum of the street!"_ she spat.

A little girl bobbed down the stairs in a new dress. It was Roxie, and she skipped around the tavern, showing off.

Sophia disliked the green-haired girl. Everything about her. Her meanness, her habit of showing off in front of the customers, even her green hair, which Sophia could not explain. She had only ever seen one other person like that, and that was her father. Her own red hair wasn't quite so special.

Madame Vanessa called Roxie over to her as Sophia watched.

"_Roxie, come my dear, Roxie, let me see you  
__You look very well in that little blue hat!  
__There are some little girls who know how to behave  
__And they know what to wear  
__And I'm saying thank heaven for that."_

Roxie noticed Sophia, and stuck her tongue out at her. In turn, Madame Vanessa whipped around, fire in her eyes.

"_Still there, Sophia?  
__Your tears will do you no good!  
__I told you fetch some water from the well in the wood!"_

"_Please do not send me out alone," _Sophia stuttered. _"Not in the darkness on my own!"_

Madame Vanessa held up her hand to slap her, and Sophia whimpered.

"_Enough of that, or I'll forget to be nice!  
__You heard me ask for something,  
__And I never ask twice!"_

Sophia had no choice but to skitter out the door, and hope she made it back.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry updates have been slow. I've been trying to live through the last few days with no bread...I have to go on a gluten-free diet for two weeks. XHUOXBSHUOCBDOS I JUST WANT A DELICIOUS DONUT AND SOME PIZZA. Also I had my IB Math test, which was really hard. I'm unwinding by listening to "Confessions of a Tooth Fairy". Go look it up on YouTube, it's epic. XD**

**This chapter is again one of those really short ones. I like it much better than the Master of the House chapter I wrote yesterday. That one will be up once I figure out whether it can be fixed. =) **


	8. The Innkeeper's Song

**A/N: Be warned, there is some adult language and lots of people drinking adult beverages. Proceed at your own risk.**

* * *

Ferb was very glad that the two little brats were gone. Children had no place in a tavern, especially one as busy as his. As the first of his regular customers began drifting in, he thought just how much more he could get out of their pocketbooks than usual.

A weary traveler wandered in, and Ferb quickly shook his hand, showing him to a table.

"_Welcome, M'sieur  
__Sit yourself down  
__And meet the best  
__Innkeeper in town..."_

He bowed, gesturing dramatically to himself.

"_As for the rest,  
__All of 'em crooks  
__Rooking their guests  
__And cooking the books!"_

The man ordered a bottle of wine, and Ferb ran to grab it, sneaking a sip before handing it to his customer. Monsieur Ferb Thenardier always prided himself in being the best possible salesman. This did not mean that he had to use the most honest of methods.

"_Seldom do you see  
__Honest men like me  
__A gent of good intent  
__Who's content to be..."_

He wandered around the tavern, greeting familiar faces.

"_Master of the house,  
__Doling out the charm  
__Ready with a handshake  
__And an open palm!"_

As another customer paid him, he reached back and pinched a woman at the table behind him.

"_Tells a saucy tale  
__Makes a little stir  
__Customers appreciate the bon-viveur!"_

The customers certainly appreciated it, for the woman he had pinched got up and slapped the man who had paid Ferb. The surrounding crowd broke out in laughter, already beginning to feel the effects of the alcohol they drank.

Ferb went back to the newcomer, warning him that he would have to pay for everything he bought, even if someone else drank it.

"_Glad to do a friend a favor  
__Doesn't cost me to be nice  
__But nothing gets you nothing  
__Everything has got a little price!"_

Seeing that his tavern was starting to become busier, he made his way to the kitchen, picking pocket watches and money off of people as he passed.

His wife Vanessa was grumpily making a meal that the newcomer had ordered, and she did little but sniff at his entrance.

"_Master of the house  
__Keeper of the zoo  
__Ready to relieve 'em  
__Of a sou or two..."_

He put a funnel into a half-empty bottle from the previous night, motioning to his wife to come fill it up with something so that he could sell it again.

"_Watering the wine  
__Making up the weight..."_

Ferb handed her the pocket watches, and they shared a greedy smile.

"_Pickin' up their knick-knacks  
__When they can't see straight!"_

He picked up another bottle of wine and reentered the main part of the tavern, toasting his many guests.

"_Everybody loves a landlord!"_

The patrons cheered and drank some more of their alcoholic beverages.

"_Everybody's bosom friend..."_

He handed the wine to whoever had ordered it, and thought maliciously to himself.

"_I do whatever pleases,  
__Jesus! Won't I bleed 'em in the end!"_

The customers, now that some of them were on their second or third round of drink, began to call out and sing their praises of their favorite man in the town: the key to their happiness.

"_Master of the house  
__Quick to catch yer eye  
__Never wants a passerby  
__To pass him by  
__Servant to the poor  
__Butler to the great  
__Comforter, philosopher,  
__And lifelong mate!  
__Everybody's boon companion  
__Everybody's chaperone!"_

Ferb wandered among them as they danced, swiftly picking up anything that glinted and caught his eye.

"_But lock up your valises  
__Jesus! Won't I skin you to the bone!"_

Another new traveler warily entered the tavern with a heavy saddlebag, and Ferb immediately directed him to a table near the kitchen.

"_Enter M'sieur  
__Lay down your load  
__Unlace your boots  
__And rest from the road..."_

Ferb tried to pick up the bag, but could not, and beckoned his wife over to "store" it and loot it as much as she could.

"_This weighs a ton  
__Travel's a curse  
__But here we strive  
__To lighten your purse!"_

The second traveler wanted something to eat, so Ferb promised him the best.

"_Here the goose is cooked  
__Here the fat is fried  
__And nothing's overlooked  
__Till I'm satisfied..."_

He went back into the kitchen with his wife to fix him something.

"_Food beyond compare,"_ Ferb cried.

Vanessa rolled her eyes. _"Food beyond belief."_

"_Mix it in a mincer and pretend it's beef,"_ the two said, shrugging as they chopped up some stray meat.

"_Kidney of a horse,"_ Vanessa said as she threw some into the grinder.

"_Liver of a cat,"_ Ferb said, winking and copying her movements.

They put it into some old pantyhose and put it on the plate. _"Filling up the sausages with this and that!"_

Vanessa picked up the plate and carried it out towards the table where the new traveler sat.

"_Residents are more than welcome..."_

Ferb ran up behind her and grabbed her, participating her in a bawdy inside joke they had.

"_Bridal suite is occupied!"_

He let go of her and Vanessa went sprawling into the table, miraculously managing to set the plate neatly down in front of the customer.

After giving the tavern a once-over to ensure that no fights had started yet, the pair returned to the kitchen to get another round for everyone. Much easier to rob them if they were in a drunken stupor.

"_Reasonable charges  
__Plus some little extras on the side..."_

Looking at the various bills they had acquired so far this evening, they added some secret charges to them. Every penny counted in these times of "economic difficulty".

"_Charge 'em for the lice," _Vanessa suggested, pointing at one on the wall.

Ferb nodded, and scribbled something else on the bill, too. _"Extra for the mice!"_

"_Two percent for looking in the mirror twice," _they said as they looked at the bill of a notably vain regular customer.

"_Here a little slice,"_ Vanessa said in a beastly manner.

"_There a little cut,"_ Ferb said, scribbling on more bills.

To a particularly pretentious customer's bill they added: _"Three percent for sleeping with the window shut!"_

Ferb proudly bowed to his wife. _"When it comes to fixing prices..."_

"_There are a lot of tricks he knows,"_ Vanessa said aside, to a rat that had wandered in and was sniffing a piece of moldy bread.

Ferb grabbed her hand and smiled. If there was one thing they could agree on, it was the importance of money.

"_How it all increases,  
__All them bits and pieces  
__Jesus! It's amazing how it grows!"_

Carrying out trays of drinks for all, they handed them out as people drunkenly danced and shouted, standing on tables and laughing together. All boundaries of class had been broken; peasants and rich men alike had succumbed to the power of the bottle.

"_Master of the house  
__Quick to catch yer eye  
__Never wants a passerby  
__To pass him by  
__Servant to the poor  
__Butler to the great  
__Comforter, philosopher  
__And lifelong mate!  
__Everybody's boon companion  
__Gives 'em everything he's got!"_

Ferb loudly whispered into Vanessa's ear, before giggling and going to flirt with a buxom young maiden.

"_Dirty bunch of geezers  
__Jesus! What a sorry little lot!"_

Vanessa watched as he walked away, then unceremoniously plopped down in the nearest chair. Sighing, she told the women gathered there of her sad lot.

"_I used to dream  
__That I would meet a prince...  
__But God Almighty,  
__Have you seen what's happened since?"_

The women giggled and took another sip of their drinks.

" '_Master of the house'  
__Isn't worth my spit!  
__'Comforter, philosopher'  
__- and lifelong shit!"_

The women laughed out loud at this, and Vanessa frowned.

"_Cunning little brain  
__Regular Voltaire  
__Thinks he's quite a lover  
__But there's not much there."_

She didn't care whether she had just insulted her husband, she did it all the time. The patrons certainly seemed to appreciate it.

"_What a cruel trick of nature  
__Landed me with such a louse  
__God knows how I've lasted  
__Living with this bastard in the house!"_

The other people in the tavern struck up the song again, praising their landlord.

"_Master of the house!"_

Vanessa snorted. _"Master and a half!"_

"_Comforter, philosopher..."_ they continued.

But Vanessa talked over them._ "Don't make me laugh!"_ She let out a triumphant "ha!"

"_Servant to the poor. Butler to the great,"_ the drinkers cried, albeit not very understandably.

"_Hypocrite and toady and inebriate!"_ Vanessa cackled, taking a swig of someone's wine.

The patrons all toasted them. _"Everybody bless the landlord! Everybody bless his spouse!"_

Vanessa could see that Ferb was loving every minute of it, just as he always did. _"Everybody raise a glass!"_ he cried, and the entire tavern cheered.

"_Raise it up the master's ass,"_ Vanessa retorted, and the tavern laughed.

With the last of their drunken strength, the patrons shouted amiably, _"Everybody raise a glass to the master of the house!"_

Eventually, it was time for the tavern to close for the night, and some went up to their weary beds in the rooms of the inn, while others slowly made their way back to their homes.

oOoOoOo

"_So there's an introduction to the Thenardiers," Roxie said, finishing the last sentence with a flourish. "Wonderful people, aren't they?"_

"_I think they took evil lessons from your Grandpa Doofenshmirtz," Sophia said earnestly._

* * *

**A/N (again): So how'd you like it? For some reason, this was very difficult to write...probably because in the show I just played a random patron and didn't have time to pay much attention to what the Thenardiers were doing. Plus he pretty much breaks the fourth wall throughout the song, which I've been trying to avoid (just wait until we get to Gavroche, I think I did better with that). **

**Regarding the end, Sophia's pretty innocent. Not entirely so like Phineas, but she is his flesh and blood so most of it got passed down to her. XD**


	9. The Bargain

It had been hours since she'd been pushed out the door, and Sophia was getting hungry, but she couldn't hook the pail into the well in the dark. Besides, she didn't want to go back to the tavern while there were lots of people inside.

When the man found her struggling at the well, Sophia had been scared. But he had told her that he didn't want to hurt her, and that made her feel a little better. Very few people had ever told her that.

She was disappointed that he was leading her back to the inn, where being hurt was a fact of life. But perhaps he wouldn't leave her at the inn.

She could only hope.

The man brought her inside, sat her down in a chair, and went over to Madame Vanessa and Monsieur Ferb.

"_I found her wandering in the wood  
__This little child, I found her trembling in the shadows  
__And I am here to help Sophia  
__And I will settle any debt you may think proper  
__I will pay what I must pay  
__To take Sophia away."_

He was going to take her away? Where to? Hopefully it was a nice place. Though she knew nothing was as beautiful as her castle.

"_Now her mother is with God  
__Isabella's suffering is over."_

Sophia didn't really know what the man meant, but she decided not to question it if it meant she got to leave.

"_And I speak here with her voice  
__And I stand here in her place..."_

Monsieur Ferb started to perform his usual act for the man, as he did for the customers every day. He put that funny wiggle in his voice and swaggered around. Sophia thought it was rather silly, and she didn't want the man to be hoodwinked by his tricks.

"_What to do? What to say?  
__Shall you carry our treasure away?  
__What a gem! What a pearl!  
__Beyond rubies is our little girl!  
__How can we speak of debt?  
__Let's not haggle for darling Sophia!"_

Monsieur Ferb sat the man down in another part of the tavern, and continued his ridiculousness. Meanwhile, Madame Vanessa kept shooting dirty looks at her. What was the matter? Sophia figured that they didn't really care whether she lived or died, so why should they act so strange?

"_Dear Isabella, gone to rest...  
__Have we done for her child what is best?  
__Shared our bread. Shared each bone.  
__Treated her like she's one of our own!  
__Like our own, Monsieur!"_

The man looked over at her, and Sophia shook her head in an attempt to tell him that they were big fat liars.

He apparently got the message, for he cleared his throat and stood up, pulling out a wad of money and giving Monsieur Ferb some of it.

"_Your feelings do you credit, sir  
__And I will ease the parting blow  
__Let us not talk of bargains or bones or greed  
__Now, may I say, we are agreed?"_

Monsieur Ferb started to shake the man's hand, but Madame Vanessa stopped him and shoved her way in front of her husband.

"_That would quite fit the bill,  
__If she hadn't so often been ill.  
__Little dear, cost us dear  
__Medicines are expensive, M'sieur  
__Not that we begrudged a sou  
__It's no more than we Christians must do!"_

The pair bowed ridiculously, and the man gave them another bit of money, but they pulled him back into his seat, questioning him once more.

"_One thing more, one small doubt  
__There are treacherous people about  
__No offense. Please reflect  
__Your intentions may not be correct?"_

The man, irritated, threw the rest of the money into the air, and Monsieur Ferb and Madame Vanessa scrambled to catch it all.

"_No more words. Here's your price.  
__Fifteen hundred for your sacrifice."_

He helped her out of the chair and led her to the door.

"_Come, Sophia, say goodbye  
__Let us seek out some friendlier sky."_

He turned back to the innkeepers, still counting the money they had received.

"_Thank you both for Sophia  
__It won't take you too long to forget."_

Sophia took the man's hand, and he smiled at her, and for the first time she felt loved.

oOoOoOo

"_So I'm going to assume that the man is my dad," said Sophia, tightening her pigtails as she read._

_Roxie nodded, smiling. "I hoped you would guess. I wanted to do this chapter from your perspective, and since you don't actually know Phineas' name, I just called him 'the man'. Because what else would you have called him?"_

_She showed the picture she had just finished to her younger cousin. "See, aren't you adorable as a little kid?"_

* * *

**A/N: Something is wonky with the Document Manager...I hope they fix it soon. Because this whole grey text junk is really annoying.**

**The one thing that kinda weirds me out as I write this is that all the rhymes are gone. People talk abut Cosette a whole freaking lot (probably because it's the easiest thing to rhyme XD), and when it's replaced with Sophia it just looks odd to me for a second. I didn't really know what to do for the whole Thenardier gets her name wrong joke, because I couldn't think of a reasonable parallel. I almost used Maria as a nod to the extremely popular Marie Flynn but I decided to just take it out. **


	10. The Beggars

"_This is kind of getting tiring," Sophia said. "Maybe we should take a snack break."_

_Roxie nodded and continued to sketch the young versions of herself and her cousin, while Sophia got up and got a bowl of chips and salsa._

"_Okay, while you eat your snack, I'm gonna explain a few things here," Roxie said. "The musical skips over some things that you'll probably need to know in the book."_

_Sophia ate a chip and motioned for her to continue._

"_Okay, so we're about to skip nine years in time before we come in again. You and Uncle Phineas leave the inn and barely manage to escape to Paris, where you hide in a convent for most of those nine years. They only let you in because it happens to be the same convent where Doofenshmirtz's son works...actually in the novel, it may be his brother, but I digress. So you and your dad hide in the convent, and they train you to become a nun, but you decide you'd rather get married and have babies at some point, so you eventually leave."_

_Sophia giggled. "I'd be a horrible nun. You know, the whole Jewish thing."_

_Roxie laughed, too. "Also, the Thenardiers somehow lose their inn, and go to Paris and thieve for a living. Cute little Roxie? Not so cute anymore. And the kid we're gonna meet in a second, which is Benji, is my brother in the book but not in the musical. That's why I wanted to make him Gavroche, so that you would remember that. Also we apparently have three other siblings that nobody ever talks about."_

"_Aw, man, now there'll be something I have to read," Sophia moaned._

"_You're a step ahead just by including me. The movie with Liam Neeson doesn't even have Eponine in it."_

_At the top of a new page, she wrote in her best cursive._

**1832, A Random Street in Paris**

The passage of time had not helped out the poor of France at all, and the beggars of Paris were no better off than the beggars of Montreuil-sur-Mer. They sat, huddled in corners, calling desperately for someone to help them out of their lot.

"_Look down and see the beggars at your feet  
__Look down and show some mercy if you can  
__Look down and see  
__The sweepings of the street  
__Look down, look down,  
__Upon your fellow man!"_

Running among them was a cheerful young boy, snatching whatever he could from passers-by. He was a dreamy sort, and enjoyed speaking to the various vermin that inhabited the city as a form of entertainment. He called himself Benji, and though he knew that he must have had parents at some point, they were gone now, and he had to fend for himself.

He skipped over to a pigeon, letting it hop onto his finger, and introduced himself.

"_How do you do? My name's Benji.  
__These are my people, here's my patch."_

He gestured to the poor behind him, then shrugged at the pigeon.

"_Not much to look at, nothing posh  
__Nothing that you'd call up to scratch."_

Benji continued his way down the street, explaining to the pigeon how he lived.

"_This is my school, my high society  
__Here in the slums of Saint Michele  
__We live on crumbs of humble piety  
__Tough on the teeth, but what the hell!"_

The pigeon almost seemed to laugh, and Benji gave it an indignant look.

"_Think you're poor?  
__Think you're free?  
__Follow me! Follow me!"_

Benji ran into the main square, where many more beggars were gathered, trying to gather a piece of bread to feed their starving families.

"_Look down and show some mercy if you can  
__Look down, look down, upon your fellow man!"_

With delight, he noticed the revolutionaries coming down the street, giving handbills of their plans to overtake Paris to rich and poor alike. They were quite young; they studied at the university, and they were led by two very passionate young men.

The main leader of the group was named Michael, and he had dark curly hair and skin, and almond-shaped brown eyes. In Benji's opinion, he looked like an Oriental. But he valiantly pled for his cause, which Benji supposed was the most important thing.

His second-in-command was sort of flighty but walked proudly with his best friend, calling to the people to get them to join in the cause. He was called Cameron, and Benji liked him the best out of all the revolutionaries. Cameron always had a nickel to spare for him.

"_Where are the leaders of the land? Where are the swells who run this show?"_ Michael called rhetorically, trying to rile up the people in the square.

Cameron pulled a bourgeois-looking older woman over to the group of students, and showed her the beggars. _"Only one man - and that's Lamarque - speaks for the people here below."_

The poor were very glad to see them, and egged them on, for they knew that the students wanted to help them.

"_See our children fed!"_

"_Help us in our shame!_

"_Something for a crust of bread, in Holy Jesus' name!"_

They began to join in a chorus, grabbing onto the students.

"_In the Lord's Holy name.  
__In his name, in his name, in his name..."_

Cameron was still trying to convince the bourgeoisie. _"Lamarque is ill and fading fast! Won't last the week out, so they say."_

"_With all the anger in the land, how long before the judgement day?"_ Michael asked the group of beggars. _"Before we cut the fat ones down to size? Before the barricades arise?"_

The pigeon appeared to have finished hearing about the upcoming revolution, so Benji showed it one of his least favorite people, so that it wouldn't get hurt.

"_Watch out for old Thénardier  
__All of his family's on the make  
__Once ran a hash-house down the way  
__Bit of a swine and no mistake."_

He pointed at the gang of motley thieves that Ferb Thenardier kept as his henchmen.

"_He's got a gang  
__The bleeding layabout  
__Even his daughter does her share..."_

Unable to see the girl he'd just mentioned in the dark corner, he at last spotted her as she swiftly ran past, her green pigtails bobbing up and down as she went, and mentioned her to the pigeon.

"_That's Roxie, she knows her way about  
__Only a kid, but hard to scare."_

Benji shrugged and took the pigeon back to his little lean-to down the street.

"_Do we care?  
__Not a cuss  
__Long live us.  
__Long live us!"_

Around him, the beggars moaned in grief.

"_Look down and show some mercy if you can  
__Look down, look down upon your fellow man!"_

* * *

**A/N: I hesitated to write this for a while...I couldn't figure out how I was going to get Benji to relay all this information without breaking the fourth wall. Then I realized...he can have a pet! I decided a pigeon would be cuter than any other kind of vermin, so I went with it. **_  
_

**I'm pretty much done with Act 1...I just have to add the Roxie and Sophia bits. Let me tell you, One Day More was really, really hard. But I did it. **

**I hope I'm not confusing you all too much with the POV switching. It's going to get worse as time goes on, unfortunately. But I really don't like stating exactly whose POV it is in the chapter...to me it just feels weird. It's an unnecessary interruption. I feel like the style I'm writing this in is similar to L.M. Montgomery's (writer of Anne of Green Gables)...I reread Anne of Ingleside last week and it made me feel better about the POV switching, because she does it a lot, too.**


	11. The Robbery

Cameron gave out handbills with all of his friends, looking around the square for his little friend with the bright green hair. Though she was a thief's daughter, she was very intelligent, and he enjoyed talking to her about his studies, for she yearned for knowledge.

He recognized her father's motley gang of robbers, and her mother grumpily sat with them, rubbing her head.

"_These bloody students on our street  
__Here they come slumming once again  
__Our Roxie would kiss their feet  
__She never had a scrap of brain."_

Cameron ignored her and went farther down the street, opposite the direction of where that little kid Benji lived. Finally, he found her, poking at a rat on the ground for some reason. _"Hey, Roxie, what's up today? I haven't seen you much about."_

Roxie smiled brightly at him. _"Here, you can always catch me in."_

"_Mind the police don't catch you out!"_ Cameron teased. He knew that she only obeyed her father because she couldn't do anything else.

"_Here, whatcha do with all these books?"_ Roxie said, pulling one of his books out of his bag and flipping through it, presumably trying to trick him into thinking she could read. _"I could have been a student too!"_

Cameron chuckled at her antics. She was always doing something silly to make him laugh.

Roxie looked up from the book defiantly. _"Don't judge a girl on how she looks. I know a lot of things, I do!"_ She dropped the book onto the unpaved dirt road.

Cameron sighed and bent down to pick up the book. _"Poor Roxie, the things you know, you wouldn't find in books like these."_

"_I like the way you grow your hair,"_ Roxie said sweetly behind him, playing with his messy brown locks.

"_I like the way you always tease,"_ he replied, while dusting off the book to ensure that no damage had been done on its ground-ward trip.

If he hadn't done this, he would have noticed Roxie remove her hat and sentimentally confess her adoration of him.

"_Little he knows, little he sees!"_ she said sadly, and put her hat back on.

oOoOoOo

"_Wow. I just realized how much Cameron is like Marius. It's kind of creepy, actually," Roxie commented._

_Sophia read over the passage again. "I dunno, I don't see it."_

_Roxie sighed. "Your Phineas genes are emerging."_

oOoOoOo

Roxie's mother found them, and pulled her down the road, back towards the gang.

"_Here's the old boy. Stay on the job and watch out for the law!"_

Cameron started to follow them, but Roxie pushed him away. _"Stay out of this."_

"_But Roxie..."_ he protested.

She continued to dissuade him. _"You'll be in trouble here. It's not your concern, you'll be in the clear."_

Cameron saw the gang staring at a rich-looking gentleman. _"Who is that man?"_

"_Leave me alone!"_ Roxie cried.

"_Why is he here?"_ Cameron insisted.

Roxie turned and ran into a nearby alley. He called after her as she ran, watching the back of her green head disappear.

"_Hey, Roxie!"_

In his carelessness, he ran into someone and they both fell in surprise. He noticed it was a young woman in a black dress and bonnet, holding a basket, and he grabbed the handle to pick it back up and hand it to her. As he stood, he looked at her...

...and was immediately entranced. Her red hair, softly curled, her big blue eyes, her shy smile...

Cameron struggled to say something, anything, to this girl who had suddenly come down from Heaven. _"I didn't see you there, forgive me."_

With an awkward sort of giggle, he tried to think of something else to say, but Roxie came up behind him and pulled him away from this mysterious girl, back towards her father's gang.

He stayed with Roxie, watching the scene unfold. Who was this man that they were so interested in?

Roxie's father beckoned him over, whoever he was, while holding a loaf of bread wrapped up in a blanket.

"_Please m'sieur, come this way  
__Here's a child that ain't eaten today.  
__Save a life, spare a sou  
__God rewards all the good that you do..."_

Roxie's father removed his hood menacingly and stood up to his full height, much taller than the other man.

"_Wait a bit. Know that face.  
__Ain't the world a remarkable place?  
__Men like me don't forget  
__You're the bastard who borrowed Sophia!"_

He grabbed the collar of the man's shirt, and it ripped, showing some writing on his chest.

The man was suddenly flustered. _"What is this? Are you mad? No, Monsieur, you know not what you do!"_

Roxie's father taunted him. _"You know me, you know me. I'm a con, just like you!"_

Cameron suddenly noticed something in the distance, and pointed it out to Roxie. She recognized it, and cried out in alarm.

"_It's the police! Disappear!  
__Run for it! It's Javert!"_

Indeed it was, the very same Inspector Candace Javert, and those two same constables (goodness knows how they hadn't retired yet). Roxie hid behind Cameron, desperately shoving her bright green hair into her cap so she wouldn't be caught. Cameron tried to comfort her, but he, too, was a bit scared of the menacing figure in the square.

"_Another brawl in the square  
__Another stink in the air!  
__Was there a witness to this?"_

Cameron raised his hand and stepped forward.

"_Well, let him speak to Javert!"_

Candace turned to the man who had been attacked, and Cameron suddenly noticed that the beautiful red-headed girl was at his side. Was she his daughter? They locked eyes for a brief moment, then shyly looked away.

"_M'sieur, the streets are not safe,  
__But let these vermin beware  
__We'll see that justice is done!"_

Candace gestured to the gang, and the beggars that surrounded them.

"_Look upon this fine collection  
__Crawled from underneath a stone  
__This swarm of worms and maggots  
__Could have picked you to the bone!  
__I know this man over here  
__I know his name and his trade  
__And on your witness, M'sieur,  
__We'll see him suitably paid - "_

Candace stopped short. The man and the wonderful girl had disappeared.

"_But where's the gentleman gone?  
__And why on earth did he run?"_

Cameron looked up and down the street, trying to see where they might have gone, and he tried to go back in the direction she had come from, but Roxie stopped him. She still needed a guard.

Roxie's father tapped the Inspector on the shoulder.

"_You will have a job to catch him  
__He's the one you should arrest  
__No more bourgeois when you scratch him  
__Than that brand upon his chest!"_

Candace suddenly looked thoughtful. Cameron, lost in romantic daydreams, didn't particularly notice what she said next.

"_Could it be he's some old jailbird  
__That the tide now washes in  
__Heard my name and started running  
__Had the brand upon his skin  
__And the girl who stood beside him  
__When I turned they both had gone  
__Could he be the man I've hunted?  
__Could it be he's Phineas Valjean?"_

Roxie's father cleared his throat, and stepped back towards his lean-to, startling Cameron.

"_In the absence of a victim,  
__Dear Inspector, may I go?  
__And remember when you've nicked him,  
__It was me who told you so!"_

Candace rolled her eyes and consented, there was probably nothing else she could do.

"_Let the old man keep on running, I will run him off his feet!"_ she mumbled.

Suddenly alert, she cried, _"Everyone about your business! Clear this garbage off the street!"_

Roxie turned and ran, and in the confusion Cameron was able to slip away from her, running in the direction the girl had come from. Perhaps he would be able to find where she lived.

oOoOoOo

"_Oooookay, that chapter was confusing," said Sophia, reading it over and trying to make sense of it._

"_This one was hard to write, Sophia, chill. So I'm hoping you guessed that the beautiful red-headed girl was you. You're welcome, by the way, for giving you such a nice description. And obviously the man they were accosting was Uncle Phineas. Cameron and I were hiding in the alley so that I could pickpocket your dad while my parents were distracting him."_

_Sophia ate another tortilla chip. "Why are Dad and I there?"_

"_You're giving food to the poor. Cameron doesn't know that, though, so he couldn't tell you."_

_Sophia shrugged. "Looks like the plot is getting good and thick."_

_Roxie smirked. "Just wait until we check back in with you. That's where it really starts to go downhill. That's in about four chapters, though, so we should be fine until then."_

* * *

**A/N: So...that's the robbery! Shout-out to all my loyal readers thus far...you are the ones who make me keep writing! =D**


	12. Stars

Candace could hardly believe it! Seventeen years she'd spent hunting down that scoundrel, and he turns up right under her nose just to disappear again! She recognized the girl now, she looked just like her mother, that filthy prostitute.

How was Phineas Valjean able to slip out of her grasp so easily? Probably a trick he learned from prison. Yet she had been born in a prison, too, and knew every last trick that they did.

After a good ten minutes' walk, she reached her favorite thinking place: the bridge over the Seine. Here she prayed, here she thought about her most difficult cases. The sky was bright blue, without a cloud in sight, and it mocked her. She imagined the night sky, and how the stars were always there.

"_Stars  
__In your multitudes  
__Scarce to be counted  
__Filling the darkness  
__With order and light  
__You are the sentinels  
__Silent and sure  
__Keeping watch in the night  
__Keeping watch in the night..."_

The stars were something she could depend upon. Other than that, she only had God and herself.

"_You know your place in the sky  
__You hold your course and your aim  
__And each in your season  
__Returns and returns  
__And is always the same..."_

With just a hint of satisfaction, Candace thought of the moment she would finally catch Valjean.

"_And if you fall as Lucifer fell  
__You fall in flame!"_

She stood proudly, shouting to the sky her manifesto.

"_And so it must be, for so it is written  
__On the doorway to paradise  
__That those who falter and those who fall  
__Must pay the price!"_

Candace fell to her knees in sweet, sweet prayer. She needed to ask for the Lord's help in this endeavor.

"_Lord let me find him  
__That I may see him  
__Safe behind bars  
__I will never rest  
__Till then  
__This I swear  
__This I swear by the stars!"_

Near the bridge, Benji watched Candace as she swore to the sky. His pigeon friend was with him still, and he explained to it just how useless Candace was in these parts.

"_That inspector thinks he's something  
__But it's me who runs this town!  
__And my theater never closes  
__And the curtain's never down."_

He spotted an old woman who was shaking in fear, and Benji put his hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

"_Trust Benji, have no fear  
__Don't you worry, auntie dear,  
__You can always find me here!"_

If only Benji could have been the ruler of France.

In another part of the city, Roxie waited at the ABC Cafe for Cameron, remembering what she'd seen. That red-headed girl that Cameron had run into...she had been the little orphan who lived with them at the inn.

"_Sophia! Now I remember!  
__Sophia! How can it be?  
__We were children together..."_

Depressed at her sorry state, Roxie sighed as she looked at her ragged skirt.

"_Look what's become of me..."_

Cameron walked over to her, on his way to his weekly revolutionary meeting at the ABC Cafe, and Roxie waved happily to him. _"Good God! Oh, what a rumpus!"_

"_That girl, who can she be?"_ Cameron said, half to himself.

Roxie did not want to spend any more time on the subject of that girl. She reminded him that she was the one who had alerted everyone of the police's appearance. _"That cop! He'd like to jump us, but he ain't smart, not he."_

"_Roxie, who was that girl?"_ Cameron asked, clearly still in a daze.

She shrugged it off, slightly grumpily. _"Some bourgeois two-a-penny thing."_

He spoke the words that she had been waiting for, but didn't want to hear. _"Roxie, find her for me!"_

"_What'll you give me?" _Roxie asked jokingly.

Apparently, he didn't understand the joke. _"Anything!"_ he said, suddenly digging through his bag.

Roxie laughed at him as he went through his bag.

"_Got you all excited now,  
__But God knows what you see in her.  
__Ain't you all delighted now..."_

But Cameron holding out a coin in payment was adding insult to injury.

"_No, I don't want your money, sir!"_ she cried, turning away from him.

She felt Cameron place his hand on her shoulder, and though it thrilled her a little bit, the words he was saying effectively canceled it out.

"_Roxie, do this for me...  
__Discover where she lives."_

She turned back around to face him.

"_But careful how you go,  
__Don't let your father know..."_

Roxie didn't really want to give her secret love away to someone else. She frowned and looked down at the ground.

"_Roxie, I'm lost until she's found!"_ Cameron pleaded.

She looked up at him, and nodded curtly. He smiled, and she pushed him into the Cafe, where everyone was waiting for him.

Alone again, she began to wander towards the place where she had heard that Sophia lived.

"_You see, I told you so!  
__There's lots of things I know  
__Roxie...she knows her way around..."_

oOoOoOo

"_The scary part about Aunt Candace is that she's actually like that," said Sophia. "It's no stretch of the imagination to see her trying to bust my dad. I've seen enough video coverage of the days when they were kids."_

_Roxie laughed. "So have I, so have I. At any rate, Eponine is not nearly so...what shall we say...hopelessly romantic in the book. She's actually kind of a creepy stalker. Just to let you know."_

"_Just when I was starting to like this love triangle, you spoil it."_

"_I am definitely not a fan of this love triangle, so I have to keep reminding myself of the reality of the situation," said Roxie in defense._

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys! It's been kind of a rough week for me, so sorry that there hasn't been an update in a few days. **


	13. The ABC Cafe

"_So now we get to go officially meet the revoluntionaries. There's way more of them in the book, but since we really only have Jimmy, Kenny, Fred, and Xavier available, we're going to combine them. Except Jimmy. He's just gonna be Grantaire because that boy needs a stiff drink. Which Grantaire will happily provide him," commented Roxie. _

"_Isn't Grantaire gay?" Sophia asked. "Jimmy would certainly have a fit if he ever found out about that."_

"_How'd you know Grantaire was gay?" Roxie asked. "You didn't seem to have any other background on the show."_

_Sophia held up her phone, which showed a picture of a blog entitled _Ask Enjolras and Grantaire._ "You never know what you'll find on Tumblr."_

"_Fair enough. This is why Jimmy needs a stiff drink. He'd go insane if he knew we paired him up with Michael - hey!" cried Roxie suddenly._

"_What?"_

"_I should've been Grantaire! Then I could follow Michael around like I did for all of middle school while he does his Michael thing. And Jimmy could've been Eponine, because of his weird obsession with you," said Roxie._

_Sophia giggled. "But then he would have had to fall in love with Cameron, unless some weird circumstance were to arise with Eponine and Cosette...nah. It wouldn't have worked."_

_Roxie sighed. "I guess you're right. To the meeting of Les Amis!"_

oOoOoOo

Sitting in his usual seat at the head of the long table, Michael waited impatiently for the rest of his allies to arrive. Jimmy was already there, but he was, as usual, already guzzling wine.

"_Michael!"_ cried Fred as he ran in. Good man. _"At Notre Dame the sections are prepared!"_

Xavier followed after him. _"At Rue de Bac they're straining at the leash!"_

Kenny came in last, shutting the door behind him, obviously very excited.

"_Students, workers, everyone  
__There's a river on the run  
__Like the flowing of the tide  
__Paris coming to our side!"_

Michael smiled. At last, they were beginning to understand!

"_The time is near  
__So near, it's stirring the blood in their veins!  
__And yet beware  
__Don't let the wine go to your brains!"_

He shot Jimmy a dark look at the bar before continuing.

"_For the army we fight is a dangerous foe  
__With the men and the arms that we never can match  
__It is easy to sit here and swat 'em like flies  
__But the national guard will be harder to catch..."_

He sat, deep in thought. With only five other men besides him (and where was the fifth? Cameron was never late) to plan, and a few more ragged volunteers who were willing to fight, they could never overthrow the kings and nobles.

"_We need a sign  
__To rally the people  
__To call them to arms  
__To bring them in line!"_

Cameron stumbled in, and Michael reprimanded him. _"Cameron, you're late!"_

"_What's wrong today?"_ Kenny asked. _"You look as if you've seen a ghost."_

Jimmy held up his bottle to Cameron. _"Some wine and say what's going on!"_

One look in his eyes and Michael could tell that something serious had happened. He had a dreamy, far-off look, and hardly seemed to notice where he was.

"_A ghost you say...a ghost maybe  
__She was just like a ghost to me  
__One minute there, and she was gone!"_

So it was a girl! Michael had been afraid something like this would happen.

Jimmy stood and mocked Cameron in his usual clownish manner.

"_I am agog!  
__I am aghast!  
__Is Cameron in love at last?  
__I have never heard him 'ooh' and 'aah'..."_

The others laughed, and Jimmy pointed at Michael as he continued.

"_You talk of battles to be won  
__And here he comes like Don Ju-an  
__It is better than an o-per-a!"_

Jimmy bowed foolishly, bringing Cameron down with him. Michael knew that he had to keep them focused, or else the meeting would be useless.

He put his hand on Cameron's shoulder, sitting him down on a bench.

"_It is time for us all  
__To decide who we are  
__Do we fight for the right  
__To a night at the opera now?"_

He turned to the others, speaking to all of them. Had they not realized how important this ordeal was?

"_Have you asked of yourselves  
__What's the price you might pay?  
__Is this simply a game  
__For rich young boys to play?  
__The colors of the world  
__Are changing day by day..."_

Michael picked up one of the red tablecloths and held it up as a sort of flag.

"_Red - the blood of angry men!  
__Black - the dark of ages past!  
__Red - a world about to dawn!  
__Black - the night that ends at last!"_

Cameron still appeared to be lost in his fantasy world.

"_Had you been there tonight  
__You might know how it feels  
__To be struck to the bone  
__In a moment of breathless delight!"_

Michael turned away, barely able to stomach the sappiness. Much more of this and he might be driven to take a sip of Jimmy's wine.

"_Had you been there tonight  
__You might also have known  
__How the world may be changed  
__In just one burst of light!  
__And what was right seems wrong  
__And what was wrong seems right!"_

"_Red..." _sang Jimmy, grabbing another tablecloth and wrapping it around his head.

Cameron still seemed completely oblivious to what was going on around him. _"I feel my soul on fire!"_

Jimmy pretended to swoon. _"Black!"_

"_My world if she's not there!"_ said Cameron, looking suddenly crushed.

"_Red..."_ the rest of them said sarcastically.

"_The color of desire!"_ Cameron said enthusiastically.

"_Black..."_ they said, before breaking out into uncontrollable laughter.

Cameron sank down onto the bench, nearly in tears. _"The color of despair!"_

Michael sighed. This was why he never let any woman hook him.

"_Cameron, you're no longer a child  
__I do not doubt you mean it well  
__But now there is a higher call."_

He could see that Cameron was once again being inspired by his words, so he continued.

"_Who cares about your lonely soul?  
__We strive toward a larger goal  
__Our little lives don't count at all!"_

Cameron, too, picked up a tablecloth, and the six men shouted their anthem with great fervor.

"_Red - the blood of angry men!  
__Black - the dark of ages past!  
__Red - a world about to dawn!  
__Black - the night that ends at last!"_

They all whooped and cheered in celebration, hardly noticing the little urchin who had run inside, desperately calling for quiet. Eventually, Michael noticed the look of terror on the child's face, and quieted the others.

"General Lamarque...is dead!" the boy managed to say, out of breath as he was.

Suddenly, it was so silent you could have heard a pin drop. The plans would have to be hurried up now...they weren't planning to build the barricades for another few weeks.

"_Lamarque is dead,"_ Michael said numbly. _"Lamarque...his death is the hour of fate. __The people's man..."_

He turned to the others, holding up his tablecloth.

"_His death is the sign we await!"_

oOoOoOo

"_Ooh, we have to add to our body count!" cried Roxie, excitedly writing "Body Count = 2" next to where Benji had announced the death of General Lamarque. _

"_Oh yeah! I forgot about that. Luckily not that many people have died yet," Sophia commented._

"_Just wait 'til Act II, that's when the bloodbath begins."_

* * *

**A/N: Ask Enjolras and Grantaire is a real blog on Tumblr. If you want a better explanation of their relationship (I couldn't really put it here because it was Michael's POV and he doesn't feel the same), I suggest you check it out. ;)**

**I wasn't sure whether I should include Roxie wanting to be Grantaire and the ensuing confusion. However, I thought it would be funny to add, so I put it in. **


	14. The People's Song

Michael unfurled the tablecloth and tied it at one end to a staff he found leaning against the wall. As he worked, he continued riling up the men, so that they could march through the streets of Paris to gather more volunteers.

"_Do you hear the people sing?  
__Singing a song of angry men?  
__It is the music of a people  
__Who will not be slaves again!  
__When the beating of your heart  
__Echoes the beating of the drums  
__There is a life about to start  
__When tomorrow comes!"_

Fred went over to the bar, motioning to the bartender to join in their cause.

"_Will you join in our crusade?  
__Who will be strong and stand with me?  
__Beyond the barricade  
__Is there a world you long to see?"_

"_Then join in the fight that will give you the right to be free!" _Kenny added, pulling him out from behind the bar and out the door with the others as they marched.

They knocked on doors, called to beggars, riled up as many people as possible. Michael proudly wove the makeshift flag at the front of the line. Together, they would overthrow everything evil in France!

More and more people were joining the parade, and still they marched on.

"_Do you hear the people sing?  
__Singing a song of angry men?  
__It is the music of a people  
__Who will not be slaves again!_

_When the beating of your heart  
__Echoes the beating of the drums  
__There is a life about to start  
__When tomorrow comes!"_

Xavier stopped two women pulling a cart, convincing them to join in the cause and fight for freedom.

"_Will you give all you can give  
__So that our banner may advance  
__Some will fall and some will live  
__Will you stand up and take your chance?  
__The blood of the martyrs  
__Will water the meadows of France!"_

Fred and Xavier pulled their cart for them so they could march, and Michael took the opportunity to stand on top of it, waving to people in the upper stories. Lots of people were following them now, and it spurred Michael to try even harder.

"_Do you hear the people sing?  
__Singing a song of angry men?  
__It is the music of a people  
__Who will not be slaves again!  
__When the beating of your heart  
__Echoes the beating of the drums  
__There is a life about to start  
__When tomorrow comes!"_

Up on the cart, he didn't notice a green-haired girl say a few words to Cameron, then pull him out of the crowd towards a completely different part of the city...

oOoOoOo

"_You and Cameron are coming to my house, aren't you?" Sophia asked, clapping her hands. "I can't wait to see me at my own age!"_

"_You'll see it in a second," Roxie said. "I need a glass of water. Writing and drawing makes a girl thirsty!"_

"_It's kind of hot in here, too, I'll turn on the fan," added Sophia, getting up to do so._

_Roxie got her glass of water, complete with a silly straw, and sat back down triumphantly. "Now let's get started drawing you. The next four chapters may be a bit hard to follow."_

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys! Happy Mother's Day! This is another awkwardly short chapter, I know. But the next four are the most fun ones for me...they're all the Cosette chapters! I wrote them like a month ago to review my blocking for the show, and then I kind of filled in the middle. **

**Right now, I'm up to the First Battle in Act II, and my Pages document is 100 pages long. Act I alone is 75 pages. SO. MUCH. TO WRITE. XD I am, however, very glad that it is not yet the length of The Brick.**


	15. Rue Plumet

"_Your house is actually probably really nice, but you spend most of your time outside in the garden, daydreaming. Cosette's a dreamer, that she is," said Roxie._

"_My hair would never curl like that," Sophia mumbled as Roxie drew her with angelic ringlets._

"_Keep in mind, this is all still the same day. We won't go to a different day until about...eh, twelve chapters from now. Well, it's about a whole 24-hour cycle. You and Cameron meet in the square in the afternoon of day 1, and by chapter 26 we're only at midday of day 2."_

_Sophia wrinkled her nose. "Reminds me of Romeo and Juliet."_

"_Hey, don't be such a sourpuss," Roxie cried. "We're going to talk about you now."_

oOoOoOo

Phineas and Sophia had rushed home after the encounter in the square, to their little house at 55 Rue Plumet. It was a comfortable place, and the part that had initially attracted Phineas to it was the tall iron gate that had been installed outside.

Sophia came out into the garden, daydreaming as she often did at this time of day. Except for the first time, her daydreams had a focus...that boy from the square...

"_How strange  
__This feeling that my life's begun at last  
__This change,  
__Can people really fall in love so fast?"_

She shook her head, pulling herself out of her own thoughts. Sophia knew that she was being completely ridiculous. Love? Why, she was only a child!

"_What's the matter with you, Sophia?  
__Have you been too much on your own?  
__So many things unclear  
__So many things unknown."_

Or was she a child? She didn't really know anymore, and she wasn't sure how to find out. Sure, she had books to read that might tell her, but she wanted to hear it from a real human being. Sophia had many questions about herself, and she had no idea how they could ever be answered.

"_In my life  
__There are so many questions and answers  
__That somehow seem wrong  
__In my life  
__There are times when I catch in the silence  
__The sigh of a faraway song..."_

Sophia looked at the trees around her, admiring their beauty and their strength, how they seemed to stretch endlessly into the sky. They weren't trapped by an iron gate. The trees could reach up into the sun itself, and Sophia wanted that too.

"_And it sings  
__Of a world that I long to see  
__Out of reach  
__Just a whisper away  
__Waiting for me..."_

All at once, a desire to see the boy from the square overtook her, and she rushed to the iron gate, clinging to the bars and staring out into the street. She sighed as she thought of him.

"_Does he know I'm alive?  
__Do I know if he's real?  
__Did he see what I saw?  
__Does he feel what I feel?"_

Sophia knew that somehow, that boy was the answer to all of her questions. And he would lead her beyond this blasted gate.

"_In my life  
__I'm no longer alone  
__Now the love in my life  
__Is so near  
__Find me now, find me here!"_

She sat on the small stone bench and sighed again. She heard her father come out into the garden from the house, and he came and sat down next to her, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"_Dear Sophia,  
__You're such a lonely child  
__How pensive, how sad you seem to me  
__Believe me, were it within my power  
__I'd fill each passing hour  
__How quiet it must be, I can see  
__With only me for company."_

Sophia didn't want to hear his usual drivel; she wanted the truth. She turned to him and grabbed his hand, pleading with him to tell her something useful.

"_There's so little I know  
__That I'm longing to know  
__Of the child that I was  
__In a time long ago..."_

Not only was he always silent about her past, he had never said a word about his own, either. Curiosity flooded through her as she continued to question him.

"_There's so little you say  
__Of the life you have known  
__Why you keep to yourself  
__Why we're always alone  
__So dark! So dark and deep...  
__The secrets that you keep!"_

Papa stood and started to return inside, but Sophia followed him, demanding to be brought to the light. She knew that she was grown up now; at least, as grown up as seventeen was, which sounded reasonable to her.

"_In my life  
__I'm no longer a child and I yearn  
__For the truth that you know  
__Of the years...years ago."_

Her father turned back around, and for a moment, Sophia thought he would tell her something of grave importance, but he simply spit out the answer he had used ever since she could remember asking him these questions.

"_You will learn. Truth is given by God to us all in our time, in our turn."_

He kissed her forehead and went back inside the house. With nothing left to do, Sophia sat back down on the bench and continued daydreaming about her love.

Little did she know, Cameron was just outside the gate, watching the pretty redhead even as she dreamed.

"_In my life  
__She has burst like the music of angels  
__The light of the sun  
__And my life seems to stop  
__As if something is over  
__And something has scarcely begun!"_

He turned to Roxie and grabbed her hand, looking thankfully into her eyes.

"_Roxie, you're the friend who has brought me here  
__Thanks to you, I am one with the gods  
__And Heaven is near!  
__And I soar through a world that is new, that is free!"_

Roxie noted with a wince his use of the word "friend". She turned away as he looked longingly in at Sophia, barely able to stomach his love for another.

oOoOoOo

"_Friendzoned level 99," Sophia said, laughing and writing it jokingly next to what her cousin had written._

"_Wait, wait, wait, this is getting ridiculous," Roxie said, laughing._

"_Keep writing!" Sophia commanded. "You're playing a character, this isn't happening in real life!"_

_Roxie huffed. "Fine."_

oOoOoOo

"_Every word that he says is a dagger in me!" _thought Roxie sadly.

She looked back at him, how blissful he was, and wished that _she_ could make him so.

"_In my life  
__There's been no one like him anywhere  
__Anywhere, where he is...  
__If he asked...I'd be his."_

Roxie and Cameron were having similar thoughts, and Roxie didn't have to guess that his weren't exactly directed at her.

"_In my life, there is someone who touches my life..."_

Roxie and Cameron locked eyes again. She knew what he wanted to do: climb over the wall and meet her. Obligingly, Roxie knelt down so he could have a boost up the high brick wall.

"_Waiting near,"_ he said, before he tumbled over into Sophia's garden.

Roxie sighed and curled up into a ball next to the wall. _"Waiting here..."_

* * *

**A/N: The awkward moment when you play Cosette and your boyfriend plays Valjean...it certainly adds a whole new level of awkwardness to their relationship! XD**

**This song always reminds me of that scene in "Skiddley Whiffers", when Vanessa's trying to get Doof to go home and let her go camping by herself with her friends. I wrote "Vanessa & Doofenshmirtz Relationship" above it in my script. =)**

**..."I'm sixteen years old! That's practically an adult!"**


	16. A Heart Full of Love

"_Yaaaay! It's the romantic part! Finally!" Sophia cheered._

_Roxie groaned. "Man, this is going to be awkward. I have to think about all the things that you and Cameron do in front hall closets," she said, elbowing Sophia._

_Sophia rolled her eyes. "Would you stop getting on me about that?"_

_Roxie snickered. "Do I have to write it? Don't you already know it, like, in your brain?"_

"_I'll write it," Sophia said. "If you don't want romance then go draw a death scene or something."_

oOoOoOo

Sophia thought she heard a crash or something, but decided it was merely her imagination. However, when the boy from the square suddenly emerged in front of her, she had to admit that this was no dream. He smiled at her, and Sophia stood up from the bench in surprise.

"_A heart full of love,"_ he said softly. _"A heart full of song..."_

He stepped towards Sophia abruptly. It frightened her a little; she still wasn't quite sure that he was actually there. She stepped away from him, and his face fell.

"_I'm doing everything all wrong!"_ he said, turning away and pacing a bit.

Sophia was worried he would disappear, and she took one small step in his direction.

"_Oh God, for shame, I do not even know your name."_ The boy turned back to her. _"Dear Mad'moiselle, won't you say? Will you tell?"_

She crept closer to him, lost in the sea of his green eyes. But Sophia knew that whatever she was doing now was certainly not allowed. Her father would be endlessly angry if he ever found out.

She decided she didn't care.

"_A heart full of love. No fear, no regret..."_ she said to this outsider that could make her dreams come true.

The boy gave a small, polite bow. _"My name is Cameron Pontmercy."_

Sophia thought she ought to curtsy in return. _"And mine's Sophia!"_ she said sweetly.

"_Sophia, I don't know what to say,"_ said Cameron, finally reaching her and grabbing her hands.

She giggled. _"Then make no sound."_

He shook his head. _"I am lost..."_

Sophia let go of his hands and spun around, sitting back down on the bench. _"I am found!"_

"_A heart full of light,"_ Cameron said as he carefully walked closer to the bench.

"_A night bright as day,"_ they agreed.

He knelt at her feet. _"And you must never go away...Sophia, Sophia!"_

Sophia took his hands, thrilling at touching him. _"This is a chain we'll never break!"_

"_Do I dream?"_ he asked.

Sophia shook her head. _"I'm awake!"_

Cameron smiled at her, and she nervously stood as he pulled her up. _"A heart full of love,"_ he said.

"_A heart full of you!"_ they practically shouted.

Cameron inched closer to her. _"A single look and then I knew."_

"_I knew it too,"_ Sophia said as she closed the small gap between them.

"_From today?"_ Cameron asked teasingly while holding out his hand to her, making Sophia blush.

She took it gladly. _"Every day."_

Sophia reveled in the beauty of the situation. How just a little bump in the square had allowed her to experience true happiness.

"_For it isn't a dream, not a dream after all!"_

Meanwhile, Roxie waited outside, listening to her love forever promise himself to Sophia. She groaned and realized that she should have told him when she had the chance.

But could he have ever loved a girl like her?

"_He was never mine to lose  
__Why regret what cannot be?  
__These are words he'll never say  
__Not to me...  
__Not to me, not for me  
__His heart full of love  
__He will never feel this way!"_

* * *

**A/N: What do Sophia and Cameron do in front hall closets? Well, they were playing hide and seek...and it kind of turned into a makeout party in the closet, and Roxie discovered them. Sophia and Cameron were extremely embarrassed. **

**I will admit, I did something similar. Except it was in a bush and not in a closet. I'm such a scandalous person. XD **


	17. The Attack on Rue Plumet

Roxie sat in her same posture, well-hidden behind the large stone column next to the iron gate. As she waited, she saw her father's gang approach, and though she was initially panicked, she forced herself to remain calm and think of a plan. After all, she didn't know why they were there.

"_This is his lair, I've seen the old fox around,"_ said Jeremy, leading the motley crew towards the gate.

Katie followed behind him, waving her knife in the air. _"He keeps himself to himself, he's staying close to the ground!" _

Her father sniffed the air dramatically and rubbed his hands together. _"I smell profit here!"_

Roxie tried not to gasp. So they were going to attempt to finish the robbery from before!

"_Ten years ago  
__He came and paid for Sophia  
__I let her go for a song  
__It's time we settled the debt  
__This'll cost him dear!"_ continued Ferb.

His cronies nodded in agreement, excepting Albert, who angrily turned away from the group. _"What do I care who you should rob? Gimme me my share, finish the job!"_

"_You shut your mouth. You'll get what's yours!"_ Ferb whispered frantically.

Roxie noticed Albert's gaze getting perilously close to her hiding spot, and she tried to squeeze her bright green hair into her cap, but he spotted her before it was fully hidden.

"_What have we here?"_ he said menacingly.

The gang turned around facing her, threatening her with their weapons. _"Who is this hussy?"_ her father asked.

Jeremy pulled her cap off roughly, revealing her hair. _"It's your brat, Roxie. Don't you know your own kid? Why's she hanging about you?"_

"_Roxie, get on home, you're not needed in this. We're enough here without you,"_ her father said roughly, before turning back to the gate.

Roxie knew she had to get them away from here somehow. Try to convince them that the robbery was pointless. She whispered desperately to them as they tried to pick the lock.

"_I know this house, I tell you. There's nothing here for you! Just the old man and the girl. They live ordinary lives..."_

Ferb turned to her and picked her up by the neck of her shirt.

"_Don't interfere,  
__You've got some gall  
__Take care, young miss,  
__You've got a lot to say!"_

Albert shrugged. _"She's going soft."_

"_Happens to all,"_ agreed Pedro.

"_Go home, Roxie, go home, you're in the way!"_ cried Katie, still brandishing her knife.

Roxie struggled out of her father's grasp, and knew she had no other option but to threaten them as they had threatened her.

"_I'm gonna scream, I'm gonna warn them here!"_

Her father grabbed her arm and stared her in the eye. _"One little scream and you'll regret it for a year."_

But Roxie managed to worm her way out of his hold, cling to the gate, and scream as loud as she could. She had to make sure that Cameron would be all right.

Her alarm worked, for Sophia and Cameron emerged from behind some bush in fright, seeing the scene just outside.

In a flurry of panic, the gang started to try to hurt Roxie, Katie holding her at knifepoint against the stone column. Ferb pushed them towards the sewer grate in the middle of the road.

"_Make for the sewers, get underground!  
__Leave her to me, don't wait around."_

Ferb moved to strike her, but to her surprise, Cameron sprinted towards the gate. She watched as her father sprinted away in fear, shouting at her as he jumped into the sewer.

"_You wait my girl, you'll rue this night  
__I'll make you scream, you'll scream all right!"_

Inside the high walls, Sophia suddenly was grateful for their existence. She slowly came over to Cameron, who was clinging to the gate, talking to the girl with green hair.

"_It was your cry sent them away  
__Once more Roxie saving the day..."_

Green hair...she didn't like green hair. But she couldn't remember why...

Cameron grabbed her hand and comforted her, introducing her to this Roxie.

"_Dearest Sophia - my friend Roxie  
__Brought me to you, showed me the way!"_

Suddenly, they heard a stir within the house. Papa was coming outside!

Cameron and Sophia shared a startled look, and Sophia pushed him over to the wall and helped him up to the top.

"_Someone is near  
__Let's not be seen  
__Somebody's here!"_

Cameron disappeared over the wall just as her father opened the door. He rushed over to her, and Sophia gladly hugged him, as she still was scared that someone would want to attack them.

"_My God, Sophia! I heard a cry in the dark. I heard the shout of angry voices in the street..."_ he said, stroking her hair.

Sophia knew that she couldn't tell him about the green-haired girl. So she was forced to lie.

"_That was my cry you heard, Papa, I was afraid of what they'd do. They ran away when they heard my cry..."_

When she thought about it, it was only half a lie. She really had been scared. That surely had to count for something.

Her father held her closer. _"Sophia, my child, what will become of you?"_

"_Three men I saw beyond the wall..."_ Sophia told him.

Papa went to look out through the gate, but Sophia stopped him, afraid he would see Cameron and Roxie. She had to make sure that Cameron would be all right. _"Three men in shadow moving fast,"_ she continued.

Papa nodded and went back towards the house.

"_This is a warning to us all,  
__These are the shadows of the past."_

As soon as she was certain he wasn't looking at her, she darted to the gate and tried to see if Cameron was still there. She reached for his hand, and she clung to it, terrified that he would be found.

She paid little attention to what her father was saying behind her, until he mentioned leaving.

"_Must be Javert!  
__He's found my cover at last!  
__I've got to get Sophia away  
__Before they return!  
__We must get away from shadows  
__That will never let us be  
__Tomorrow to Calais...  
__And then a ship across the sea!"_

Sophia and Cameron gasped. They would never see each other again if she were to leave France! He was only a poor student!

"_Hurry, Sophia, prepare to leave and say no more,  
__Tomorrow we'll away!  
__Hurry, Sophia, it's time to close another door  
__And live another day!"_

Papa pulled her away from the gate, and helplessly Sophia followed, her brand new world crashing down around her.

oOoOoOo

"_Oh no! I never get to see Cameron again?" Sophia cried._

_Roxie paused for a second. "Well...not exactly. But that would be giving you spoilers, and that's not fair, now is it?" She erased a small line off of the illustration of herself, sitting next to the wall. "Now we've only got one more scene until Act I is over, so let's hop to it."_

* * *

**A/N: Herro! I know, it's been a while on this. But my cubital tunnel's been acting up, so I didn't want to aggravate it a bunch by typing more. I have up to Bring Him Home done, so I gotta work on the rest of Act II while I have free time for an hour today. **


	18. One Day More

Inside the house, Phineas quickly got out all the necessary paperwork they would need to go to England. His English wasn't very good, but Sophia had learned quite a bit in the convent, so she would be fine.

Though he was scared, he was excited to embark on another adventure.

"_One day more!  
__Another day, another destiny.  
__This never-ending road to Calvary;  
__These men who seem to know my crime  
__Will surely come a second time.  
__One day more!"_

Sophia pulled their already-packed trunk into his bedroom and sat on it sadly. He put his hand on her shoulder, but she flinched at his touch, ran away from him, and looked out the window.

As Cameron and Roxie walked to the place where he was supposed to meet Michael and the other revolutionaries, he sighed at the thought of never seeing his love again.

"_I did not live until today.  
__How can I live when we are parted?"_

Back in the house, Phineas shrugged and began to put the paperwork into the trunk. _"One day more."_ He realized a piece of it was missing, so he left the room to go collect it.

Sophia and Cameron were having the same thoughts, though now separated in space, and their hearts painfully cried out together.

"_Tomorrow you'll be worlds away,  
__And yet with you, my world has started!"_

Next to Cameron, Roxie tried to ignore Cameron's troubled sighs. Perhaps she could be the one to comfort him out of his sadness. But she had to wait until Sophia was gone. _"One more day all on my own."_

"_Will we ever meet again?"_ thought Sophia and Cameron simultaneously.

"_One more day with him not caring..."_ Roxie continued. That was all she had to get through.

Desperate as only young lovers can be, Sophia and Cameron knew that no one else would ever be the same. _"I was born to be with you!"_

"_What a life I might have known,"_ Roxie thought to herself, remembering the days in the inn as a child.

"_And I swear I will be true!"_ Sophia and Cameron promised, never wanting to love anyone else.

Roxie wasn't sure which was more unfair, the fact that Sophia has become a bourgeois in the first place or that Cameron had fallen in love with her. _"But he never saw me there!"_

Michael saw Cameron and the green-haired girl approach, and waved them over to their group by the ABC Cafe. _"One more day before the storm!"_

For a minute, Cameron considered turning back. _"Do I follow where she goes?"_

"_At the barricades of freedom!"_ Michael cried, with a wave of his tablecloth flag.

Cameron was concerned that he would die on the barricade, without ever getting a chance to tell Sophia this. _"Shall I join my brothers there?"_

"_When our ranks begin to form..."_ said Michael, calling out to some workers passing by.

"_Do I stay; and do I dare?"_ thought Cameron gravely.

Michael held out his hand to the workers. _"Will you take your place with me?"_

Around them, all of Paris seemed to be abuzz with the call of revolution.

"_The time is now, the day is here!"_

Back at Rue Plumet, Phineas brought in the last of the papers and Bishop Monogram's precious silver candlesticks. _"One day more!"_

Sophia helped him pack these last items, still thinking only of Cameron.

In her room, Inspector Candace Javert dressed herself in an old army uniform she possessed. Though she was still upset about Phineas' escape earlier that day, she was going to channel it into taking down the barricades from the inside.

"_One more day to revolution,  
__We will nip it in the bud!  
__I will join these little schoolboys,  
__They will wet themselves with blood!"_

Together, Phineas and Sophia shut the trunk. _"One day more!"_

From their watching place in the sewer, Ferb and Vanessa popped their heads out to see what was happening with the revolution. Dead bodies mean plenty of people to loot - and the sooner they were dead the better.

"_Watch 'em run amuck,  
__Catch 'em as they fall,  
__Never know your luck  
__When there's a free for all,  
__Here a little `dip'  
__There a little `touch'  
__Most of them are goners  
__So they won't miss much!"_

More people had gathered, and by now Michael had planned to start the final march to the site of the barricade. He proudly led the group, but he handed the flag off to Xavier, because he was taller.

"_One day to a new beginning,"_ the crowd sang.

"_Raise the flag of freedom high!"_ some of them called.

"_Every man will be a king!"_ the crowd cried.

Hearing this, more people added on to the march, repeating the call. _"Every man will be a king!"_

"_There's a new world for the winning,"_ the crowd cheered.

"_There's a new world to be won!"_ added some more newcomers.

It seemed as though every person in Paris was going to join them!

"_Do you hear the people sing?"_

Cameron, trying to reassure himself more than Michael, put his hand on his best friend's shoulder. _"My place is here, I fight with you!"_

Phineas looked at Sophia, but she nearly burst into tears and ran back to the window. _"One day more!"_

"_I did not live until today!"_ Cameron and Sophia cried.

Roxie heard Cameron's cries, and reminded herself that soon she would be his love. _"One more day all on my own!"_

Sophia clung to the window, while Cameron had to work very hard to keep himself from crying. _"How can I live when we are parted?"_

Candace left her small room, following the sound of singing and marching down the street.

"_I will join these 'people's heroes'  
__I will follow where they go  
__I will learn their little secrets,  
__I will know the things they know..."_

Unsure what to do about his suddenly stubborn daughter, Phineas sank onto his bed, remembering that in a few hours they would be on a train to Calais. _"One day more!"_

Sophia helplessly rested her head against the window, while Cameron barely found the strength to keep marching. _"Tomorrow you'll be worlds away..." _

Roxie wished that she was leaving France tomorrow. She'd be much happier without her father to deal with. _"What a life I might have known!"_

"_And yet with you my world has started!" _said Cameron and Sophia, delightfully dwelling on the small memories they had.

Candace had caught up to the revolutionaries. She began to march with them.

"_One more day to revolution  
__We will nip it in the bud  
__We'll be ready for these schoolboys!"_

The Thenardiers had to close their man-hole cover as the revolutionaries passed them. But they delighted in the fact that it meant more money for them in the end.

"_Watch 'em run amok  
__Catch 'em as they fall  
__Never know your luck  
__When there's a free-for-all!"_

Phineas couldn't wait until he had Sophia safely out of France. Finally, he could rest at night. _"Tomorrow we'll be far away, tomorrow is the judgement day!"_

Throughout the city, every person repeated the next sentiments. Whether they were lovers, convicts, revolutionaries, peasants, thieves, or policemen, all could agree that tomorrow would be the most eventful day of their lives.

"_Tomorrow we'll discover  
__What our God in Heaven has in store!  
__One more dawn  
__One more day  
__One day more!"_

oOoOoOo

"_Whew," said Roxie. "Are you confused yet?"_

"_Not really, actually. I'm just hungry," Sophia observed. "I think it's time for a lunch break."_

_Roxie nodded in agreement. "How do tacos sound to you?"_

* * *

**A/N: Phew! Act I is done! This is most likely the last post on this until I finish school...but that's June 7, so not horribly far away. Then it's summer, when I can WRITE! YEEEEEEEEE! And watch Phineas and Ferb, of course. XD **

**I have so many story plans that they're all kind of imploding on each other. I'm planning this huge epic thing involving multiple universes, mind powers, and the Mysterious Force, plus I still would kind of like to update Drabble Days, and I just started that new story with Stacy, plus I have two great Phinabella fluff ideas...blargh.**


	19. Building the Barricades

"_Hey, guys, I just came over to see why there was no big project going on today," Cameron said as he sat down at the kitchen table. "Whoa, what's all this stuff?" he cried, looking through the scattered pieces of the book. _

_Sophia smiled. "It's our summer reading assignment. Roxie's helping me."_

"_We had a summer reading assignment?"_

_Roxie elbowed Sophia. "My case in point. He's a Marius clone."_

"_We have to read Les Miserables," Sophia explained. "I figured the book would take too long to read, so Roxie and I are making an illustrated book of the musical version instead, with everyone we know as the characters!"_

"_Cool! Can I help?" Cameron asked._

_Roxie patted him on the shoulder. "Go right ahead. Now I don't have to write all your barricade scenes."_

oOoOoOo

Finally, the revolutionaries reached the place where they were going to build the barricade. Michael, heart full of the spirit of Patria, leaped up onto a barrel and began giving directions to the crowd.

"_Here upon these stones  
__We will build our barricade!"_

The crowd gave a mighty cheer at this.

"_In the heart of the city  
__We claim as our own!  
__Each man to his duty  
__And don't be afraid..."_

As the people began to run off, collecting various odds and ends, Michael tried to stop them.

"_Wait! I will need a report  
__On the strength of the foe."_

A red-haired woman that Michael did not recognize pushed her way through the crowd, calling out to him in reply.

"_I can find out the truth  
__I know their ways  
__Fought their wars  
__Served my time  
__In the days  
__Of my youth."_

Michael nodded to her, and the woman ran off, hopefully to gather information.

Cameron, stuck in the midst of the crowd, was beginning to get worried about Roxie. She'd disappeared some time ago - who knows why. Hopefully she had gotten home all right.

Suddenly, she ran up to him, hair carefully tucked into her cap, wearing knickers and a heavy coat to hide the fact that she was a girl. There were women in the crowd, but most of them were much older than her, for she was still barely out of girlhood.

"_Hey, little boy, what's this I see?"_ Cameron teased. _"God, Roxie, the things you do!"_

"_I know this is no place for me. Still, I would rather be with you!"_ she said happily.

Cameron hadn't expected her to want to fight. _"Get out before the trouble starts. Get out, Roxie, you might get shot!"_

"_I've got you worried now, I have. That shows you like me quite a lot!"_ was her only response.

Cameron knew he had to think of some way to get her out of trouble. Then he remembered the letter he'd scrawled to Sophia as he'd waited here. Roxie could carry it for him!

"_There is a way that you can help. You are the answer to a prayer!"_ He handed her the note. _"Please take this letter to Sophia, and pray to God that she's still there!"_

As Roxie wandered away, she muttered softly, _"Little you know! Little you care!"_

Roxie made her way back to Rue Plumet, quiet as a mouse. Unfortunately, just as she reached the gate she tripped and fell, making a loud sound in the street. Before she could slip away and try again, Sophia's father came outside, holding a lantern, looking for the source of the noise.

She had no choice but to explain herself. Roxie held out the letter for him to see.

"_I have a letter, M'sieur,  
__It's addressed to your daughter, Sophia  
__It's from a boy at the barricade, Sir,  
__In the Rue de Villette."_

"_Give me that letter here, my boy,"_ her father said kindly.

But Roxie hesitated, stepping away from the gate. _"He said to give it to Sophia..."_

Sophia's father sighed, then again smiled at her.

"_You have my word that my daughter will know what this letter contains."_

Roxie could tell that he wouldn't lie to her, so she grudgingly handed the letter to him.

"_Tell the young man she will read it tomorrow, and here's for your pains."_

He handed her a few sous from his pocket.

"_Go careful now, stay out of sight  
__There's danger in the streets tonight..."_

Roxie skittered off, anxious about Cameron.

Phineas watched the little creature scramble away. Obviously the boy hadn't been expecting to encounter him. That meant that the letter most likely contained some grave secret. Perhaps it was a threat to her!

He sat down on Sophia's bench and opened it, and nearly fell off in shock as he read the words written there.

" '_Dearest Sophia, you have entered my soul  
__And soon you will be gone.  
__Can it be only a day since we met  
__And the world was reborn?  
__If I should fall in the battle to come  
__Let this be my goodbye...  
__Now that I know you love me as well _(here Phineas gave a bit of a start)  
_It is harder to die...  
__I pray that God will bring me home  
__To be with you.  
__Pray for your Cameron. He prays for you!' "_

Sophia...in love? How could this have happened? But she never saw anyone, he had seen to that very surely. He was shocked that she would disobey him, but then again, perhaps it wasn't her fault. She was almost grown, and maybe now if she had a husband to protect her, she would be safer. The only thing this plan hinged on was the valor of the man in question.

He had to go down to the barricade and investigate this "Cameron" character.

Roxie slowly made her way back towards the barricade. She stopped under a lamppost, hanging onto it, and looking up and down the street to ensure she wasn't being followed. With a sigh of relief, she continued on.

"_And now I'm all alone again  
__Nowhere to turn, no one to go to  
__Without a home, without a friend,  
__Without a face to say hello to."_

She looked off at the setting sun.

"_And now the night is near  
__Now I can make believe he's here."_

Cameron! There was no better way to occupy her thoughts.

"_Sometimes I walk alone at night  
__When everybody else is sleeping  
__I think of him and then I'm happy  
__With the company I'm keeping  
__The city goes to bed  
__And I can live inside my head."_

She imagined him at her side, happy and strong, holding her hand.

"_On my own  
__Pretending he's beside me  
__All alone, I walk with him till morning  
__Without him  
__I feel his arms around me  
__And when I lose my way I close my eyes  
__And he has found me..."_

She stopped under another lamppost, clinging to it for a second, imagining it was him.

"_In the rain the pavement shines like silver  
__All the lights are misty in the river  
__In the darkness, the trees are full of starlight  
__And all I see is him and me forever and forever..."_

She had to remove herself from the dreams, the dreams that she knew deep down she could never have. But that didn't stop Roxie from having them anyway.

"_And I know it's only in my mind  
__That I'm talking to myself and not to him  
__And although I know that he is blind  
__Still I say, there's a way for us!"_

She heaved another sigh and went on walking. Everything she passed reminded her of him. Reminders that he wasn't there.

"_I love him  
__But when the night is over  
__He is gone, the river's just a river  
__Without him the world around me changes  
__The trees are bare and everywhere  
__The streets are full of strangers..."_

Unable to continue, she sank down underneath a fourth lamppost.

"_I love him  
__But every day I'm learning  
__All my life I've only been pretending!"_

That was the truth, plain and simple. Every day had just been another lie.

"_Without me his world will go on turning  
__A world that's full of happiness  
__That I have never known!"_

Three little words; words that she yearned every moment to say to him, but never could.

"_I love him,"_ she whispered. _"I love him. I love him...but only on my own."_

oOoOoOo

"_Ugh. That felt so icky," Sophia commented. "I mean, I get that it's a character, it was just strange imagining you having fantasies of Cameron."_

_Roxie was covering her eyes. "I think I need to go wash my brain. I never want to hear myself being connected with 'fantasies of Cameron'. Ever. EVER."_

"_I second that motion," said Cameron. "Seeing as it is fantasies of me we're talking about here..."_

"_Oh, God, Cameron!" Roxie cried, "we are not discussing any fantasies! Especially not of you! Well, I guess you can with Sophia if you want but if you do I will go scour out my ears and eyeballs."_

"_We shall never speak of this again," Sophia said._

"_Agreed," said Roxie and Cameron immediately._

oOoOoOo

The barricade was a terrible sight to behold. Stacked nearly to the top of the buildings surrounding it, it was a massive pile of tables, ladders, barrels, even a coffin that someone had brought because it was too big for anyone to use. Cameron proudly watched as Michael climbed up onto one of the higher points on it to address the small crowd, holding the freedom flag.

"_Red - the blood of angry men!  
__Black - the dark of ages past!  
__Red - a world about to dawn!  
__Black - the night that ends at last!"_

From the other side of the barricade, a soldier with a loud hailer gave a warning.

"_You at the barricade, listen to this!  
__No one is coming to help you to fight  
__You're on your own  
__You have no friends  
__Give up your guns - or die!"_

In spite of this, Michael waved the flag, and cried proudly for his country.

"_Damn their warnings, damn their lies  
__They will see the people rise!"_

The others joined in the chorus, full of patriotic fervor.

"_Damn their warnings, damn their lies  
__They will see the people rise!"_

* * *

**A/N: Hi guys! It's been a while. I'm officially done with my junior year, and I've driven a car twice, and I have TWO jobs...a lot has happened since the last time I posted. (And the site's changed a ton, too! Not sure if I like it this way...)**

**I have a confession to make. I really don't like On My Own. Probably because I've heard EVERY GIRL ON THE PLANET sing that song, and I've never really liked it anyway. So my apologies if I didn't write it well because I spent like 5 minutes on it.**

**Also, our Eponine messed up and sang "the trees are full of starlight" like 3 times one night. I don't blame her, I'd never be able to remember the lyrics to it. XD**


	20. Javert at the Barricade

Suddenly, the red-haired woman returned, with a map, and set it down on a large crate at the bottom of the barricade. Michael and Cameron went over to her, and she nodded curtly before opening the map.

"_I have overheard their plans  
__There will be no attack tonight..."_

She indicated on the map where she had seen more soldiers.

"_They intend to starve us out  
__Before they start a proper fight  
__Concentrate their force  
__Hit us from the right."_

"Liar!" called a young voice from the barricade.

Cameron turned to look. It was that little kid, Benji!

"_Good evening, dear inspector  
__Lovely evening, my dear.  
__I know this man, my friends  
__His name's Inspector Javert!"_

An impostor! Immediately, Cameron and Fred pointed their rifles at her.

"_So don't believe a word he says  
__'Cause none of it's true  
__This only goes to show  
__What little people can do!"_

Benji came up to the Inspector, and took her pistol from its holder. He paraded around with it proudly.

"_And little people know  
__When little people fight  
__We may look easy pickings  
__But we've got some bite!"_

He pointed it at some of the crowd, and they ducked, not wanting to get shot if he accidentally set it off.

"_So never kick a dog  
__Because he's just a pup..."_

Michael managed to wrangle the gun from him, and Benji pouted for a second, but continued with his little manifesto.

"_We'll fight like twenty armies  
__And we won't give up  
__So you'd better run for cover  
__When the pup grows up!"_

Benji made a lewd gesture right in Candace's face, and Jimmy grabbed him and pulled him back, lest he would try to punch her.

"_Bravo, little Benji, you're the top of the class!"_ he said, ruffling Benji's hair.

"_So what are we going to do with this snake in the grass?"_ asked Fred.

"_Shoot him!"_ suggested Kenny.

Michael shook his head, and instructed two members of the crowd to take the Inspector away.

"_Tie this man and take him  
__To the tavern in there  
__The people will decide your fate,  
__Inspector Javert!"_

Suddenly, gunshots rang out in the street, and Kenny pointed, shouting "There's a boy climbing the barricade!"

The boy stumbled over the top, and Cameron realized with a start that it was Roxie. He rushed over to her, helping her down from the top.

"_Good God! What are you doing?  
__Roxie, have you no fear?  
__Have you seen my beloved?  
__Why have you come back here?"_

They managed to make it to the ground without any more shooting, and Roxie, wavering on her feet, mumbled an explanation.

"_Took the letter like you said,  
__I met her father at the door  
__He said he would give it -  
__I don't think I can stand any more..."_

She collapsed, and Cameron barely caught her before she landed on the cold ground. Cameron's concern was growing - obviously there was a problem. He knelt down and laid her on his lap, stroking her face.

"_Roxie, what's wrong?  
__I feel there's something wet upon your hair..."_

He looked at his hand, and saw her blood all over it. Trying not to panic, he held her closer.

"_Roxie, you're hurt,  
__You need some help!"_

He opened her coat, and saw that from the sight of her abdomen, there was nothing that could be done.

"_Oh God, it's everywhere..."_

But Roxie seemed calm, and she reached up to touch his face with a smile.

"_Don't you fret, M'sieur Cameron  
__I don't feel any pain  
__A little fall of rain  
__Can hardly hurt me now..."_

She put her hand down; holding it up already seemed too much of an effort.

"_You're here, that's all I need to know  
__And you will keep me safe  
__And you will keep me close  
__And rain will make the flowers grow."_

Cameron refused to believe that his friend was dying, right here in his arms. She had always been so full of life and ambition. How was it that he could see the life slipping from her as she bled?

"_But you will live, Roxie - dear God above,  
__If I could heal your wounds with words of love!"_

Weakly, Roxie shushed him.

"_Just hold me now, and let it be.  
__Shelter me, comfort me..."_

She closed her eyes, preparing for the road that she was soon to take.

"_So don't you fret, M'sieur Cameron  
__I don't feel any pain  
__A little fall of rain  
__Can hardly hurt me now..."_

Cameron knew that all he could do now was comfort her in her last moments.

"_Hush-a-bye, dear Roxie,  
__You won't feel any pain  
__A little fall of rain  
__Can hardly hurt you now..."_

"_I'm here,"_ Cameron said, holding her hand.

"_That's all I need to know,"_ sighed Roxie. _"And you will keep me safe, and you will keep me close..."_

Cameron held her even closer. _"I will stay with you till you are sleeping..."_

Roxie opened her eyes, for what seemed to be the last time. _"And rain..."_

"_And rain..."_ Cameron echoed, a single tear running down his cheek.

"_Will make the flowers..."_ said Roxie, trailing off helplessly.

"_Will make the flowers..."_ whispered Cameron, sensing that this was really the end.

Roxie closed her eyes, and with a shudder, she was gone.

Still, Cameron finished her last sentence. _"...grow..."_

A rush of grief fell upon him, and he wept bitterly, clinging desperately to Roxie's body. There was a long moment of silence as he cried, which he was grateful for. Eventually, however, Michael came over to him and put his hand on Cameron's shoulder.

"_She is the first to fall  
__The first of us to fall upon this barricade."_

Cameron looked up at his friend, trying to pull himself together for the sake of the revolution.

"_Her name was Roxie  
__Her life was cold and dark, yet she was unafraid."_

"_We fight here in her name,"_ said Fred quietly. _"She will not die in vain."_

"_She will not be betrayed,"_ added Xavier.

Gently, Michael, Fred, and Xavier picked up her body and carried her down an alley. A sympathetic undertaker lived there.

When they returned, all they could do was wait.

oOoOoOo

"_Adding to the death roster here. Let's see...I'm pretty sure that I'm only the third person to die," said Roxie, neatly writing "Body Count = 3" next to her own death._

"_Body count. I like it," Cameron commented, twisting his hair around his pencil._

_Sophia poked him. "Pay attention, or I'll force you to," she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek._

"_Sophia, if you threaten him with romance then you won't be paying attention, either," said Roxie._

"_Eh. You have a point there."_

oOoOoOo

Phineas saw the barricades and the soldiers, and slipped past without notice. Luckily, having to be prepared with many disguises had benefitted a situation besides escape.

A olive-skinned young man noticed him first, pointing his rifle.

"_Here comes a man in uniform  
__What brings you to this place?"_

"_I come here as a volunteer,"_ said Phineas, holding up his hands in surrender to show he had no weapons.

The olive-skinned boy didn't relax his stance. _"Approach and show your face."_

"_You wear an army uniform,"_ pointed out a young man with light brown spiky hair.

Phineas made no movement from where he was, he just hoped that none of the soldiers on the other side had noticed him on the barricade yet. _"That's why they let me through."_

The olive-skinned boy looked over towards the window of the nearby tavern. _"You see that prisoner over there?"_

"_A volunteer like you!"_ said the boy with spiky hair.

"_A spy who calls himself Javert!"_ added another brown-haired boy.

The spiky-haired one snickered. _"He's gonna get it, too..."_

"_They're getting ready to attack!"_ cried the olive-skinned boy.

"_Take this and use it well!"_ said a young man with dark curly hair, obviously the leader, pulling him down the barricade and handing him a rifle. _"But if you shoot us in the back, __you'll never live to tell..."_

The others got into position, and Phineas found a spot to shoot from. As he looked at the young men, he wondered exactly which one was Cameron.

oOoOoOo

"_Why is it that I can totally imagine your dad doing something like that?" Cameron asked, chuckling. "I feel like he'd challenge me to some battle or something to prove my worthiness to date you."_

"_You're lucky he hasn't already," Sophia whispered. "Don't give him any ideas."_

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**A/N: So as you've probably guessed from the last two chapters, Cameron has come over to join in the fun. He's a dork. XD **

**Next two chapters will be up whenever I can write chapters 25 & 26. I like to stay four chapters ahead at all times. So it will most likely be sometime this week.**


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